It’s tax time here in the US of A, and I’m wondering how hard the tax man bit you. I’ll start by saying that 2010 was an exceptional year for my family, largely because a long-term capital gain. I did our taxes recently and was pleased to find that our effective federal tax rate was in the teens (17.7%) for the first time since . . . well, I don’t have records going back that far, I looked, but get this, my 17.7% rate is identical to Warren Buffett's rate:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/26/news/newsmakers/clinton_buffett/index.htm?postversion=2007062700

Add on to this our effective Social Security tax rate was well under 1%, I’m guessing that my effective Federal income tax rate this year is lower than it has ever been, even when I was young and poor, this during the year when my income was the highest it has ever been. While I’m not complaining, I must observe how completely messed-up this is.

GE’s been getting a lot of bad press lately over having paid 0.0% federal income tax last year, a year when they told their shareholders they made $14,200,000,000 in net profits. All I can say is that they did a lot better than me and Warren Buffett!

So my question to you my Redscape friends, what was your effective tax rate this year? Just the rate, not the number. To have uniformity use the Total Tax you paid (line 60 of Form 1040) and divide it by your Adjusted Gross Income (line 37). If you use Turbo Tax, this number is on the front page with your filing instructions, but if you paid the Alternative Minimum Tax it is calculated incorrectly (really!) so do the math yourself.

Also interested in hearing about real rates in the rest of the world if others would like to share.

(Posting this in political because I'll guess the discussion will go there. Feel free to take it there, but the ticket to write politics is your effective Federal income tax rate. If your taxes aren't done yet, what are you doing here? Get your taxes done!)