<prompt> Human: Primer: Im not totally sure how taxes work.Got a raise of 5, which increases my salary from 86,301 to 91,000.Googled tax brackets and saw this image: Article: Seems to me that the tax difference is 13,325Im a single male, I get 1 exemption, as far as I know.So, if Im reading this all right, I dont have to pay 10,300 of it with the personal and standard deduction?Am I pretty much getting a 3k pay decrease?  <response>: Am I pretty much getting a 3k pay decrease?Nope. The way marginal tax brackets work is every extra dollar in the new bracket is taxed at that rate, the dollars in lower brackets were already taxed. Even if there were two tax brackets, 0 and 50, and 0 bracket went from 0 to 90,000, if you made 90,001 youd only owe 0.50 in tax because the higher bracket only applies to the marginal dollars that you earned above 90,000. And yes, its based on taxable income so certain items lower your taxable income. 