<prompt> Human: Ive previously had shit jobs paying 8 an hour or so for my young adult life, and into college.Within the couple years I got out of college and have since gotten a new job that has paid fairly well. Im not sure how long this job will last, but this year it looks like Ill probably make about 300,000.Ive never made anything near this before, and when I looked up a federal tax calculator and entered in income information for a self employed independent contractor it came up with this information: Income: 300,000 Taxable Income: 274,629 Self Employment Tax: 22,542 Income Tax: 73,735 Total Tax Due: 90,778Give how much people complain about taxes I understand Ill probably come off seeming really naive, and that this is likely really normal. But it seemed like a lot of money to pay out later without at least checking to see if there is something I might be doing wrong.I usually do my taxes online and thought about paying a professional to do them, but given my current lifestyle of still renting an apartment, working from home via the internet having no travelgas and such I couldnt really think of anything that might be a significant deductible to reduce my tax bill.Are the people who pay 18 taxes or whatever strictly millionaries and an upper middle class range like that is stuck paying 30 tax no matter what?Would there be any huge reason for me to consider buying a house simply for financialtax reasons?  <response>: You should definitely work with a tax professional to make sure everything is accurate, but that looks about right to me. Im making about half what you are and, if you include medicare, state income tax, and social security... its definitely more than 30 that goes straight to the government its more than 30 even if we omit social security.Would there be any huge reason for me to consider buying a house simply for financialtax reasons?Probably not. Mortgage interest is tax deductible - meaning for every dollar you send to the bank, you only save a fraction on your taxes. Still a net loss. If you were gonna buy a house anyway, its good to take the deduction. 