<prompt> Human: Hi, thanks for reading. I am a 21-year old that works full time with an annual salary of 45,000. I am single, have no dependents and cannot be a dependent on anyone elses taxes. My health costs are less than 1000year and I have my own employee-sponsored health insurance. I donate around 2000year to charities and have these documented. I live and work in NYC, so city and state tax is rather high here. Furthermore, I pay more than 7000year for tuition and pay on the principal of my loans. I invest small amounts in a self-managed brokerage account, though my gains are not significant.Despite this, I only take home 70 of my income after taxes. Is this just a sad realization of income tax or am I being taxed at a higher than normal rate? Perhaps there are other channels I am not pursuing, but on my W-4 there I only have two exemptions, none of which mention school.Thank you!Assistant: Thank you for all the responses. Alas, it seems I am normal and am getting my share of the pie. Perhaps my refund will be large...?  <response>: Not really. You SHOULD be paying nearly 30 in taxes. If you have a lot of writeoffs, you can reduce your taxable income. But your take home is around the correct proportion to your taxable income.Also, the student loan interest deduction is only for the first 2000. 