“Taxes are the price we pay for civilization."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr.

A first job is an exciting step in a person’s life. They eagerly await that first paycheck and daydream about how to spend it. Then the paycheck arrives and the shock sets in. Where did all the money go?

The amount of money a worker earns per hour multiplied by the number of hours worked is called gross pay. Net pay or take-home pay is what a worker “takes home” after all of the appropriate deductions have been made from their gross pay. These deductions include taxes such as: