<prompt> Human: Both have been paying taxes for years, of course, and yet they didnt know how those taxes were calculated, or the difference between itemizing deductions and taking the standard deduction, or how a deduction even matters.My generation, 3232;_3232;EDIT: If you want to know how it works, this is a good link  <response>: For the people asking how tax brackets work:Each bracket is the percentage tax on a range of incomes and the brackets are cumulative. Example not real numbers:For all the money you make from 0 - 30,000, you are not taxed.At 30,001, the 10 bracket kicks in. This does NOT mean that if you make 30,001 you pay 3000.1 in tax 30,001 .1. What this means is that you are charged 10 tax on all the money you make above 30,000. So your liability would be 10 1, or 0.10. This continues all the way up to like 200,000. So there is a 30,001 - 59,999 bracket and then 60,000 - 75,000 might be 25, then 75,001 - 99,999 might be 30. Because the tax is only increased on the money above a certain value, its not possible to get a raise and make less money your first 45,000 is always taxed the same whether you make 45,001 or 350,000.This is known as marginal or progressive taxationHere are the actual US rates and a calculator to play with: 