How higher/lower taxes can affect reward system and overall satisfaction of someone
This is pretty close to being a classic example of a framing effect (wikipedia), originally described in the literature by Tversky &amp; Kahneman (1986).

In essence, our subjective valuation of a choice or outcome isn't invariant, as economic theory says it should be, but instead is influenced by contextual effects, such as riskiness, and if the outcome is seen as a loss or a gain.

I don't know much specifically about framing effects and framing effects and taxation, and haven't time to do any research, but a Google Scholar search for the terms throws up this and this, among other articles, which seem to cover what you're talking about (although they may be behind a paywall, I don't know).



Looking back at your question, your hypothesis seems about right: while both people end up with the same amount of money, person B will perceive a greater loss due to taxation, and so, when both are thinking about their earning from this perspective, should be less satisfied.

However, if decades of research have shown us one thing, it's that high-level cognitive effects like this are extremely context dependent. What happens when both individuals aren't thinking about their income in terms of taxation, but with reference to the minimum, or average, wage in that region? Or what if the comparison happens in a context where public services, like education, are salient? Would person B be happier, because they feel they have contributed more to their community? Where I'm going with this basically that psychology can be very very hard, and that context always matters.