# We The People Calculator

Personalized Side-by-Side Comparison

Jason Robertson · Ohio · 2026 · v1.10 · Created May 5, 2026 for v2.12 · Updated May 6, 2026 for v2.23 (wealth surcharge, scope labels, occupation docs) · Updated May 6, 2026 for v2.27 (canonical OPEN-2 architecture: graduated income surcharge, $10M wealth surcharge, $50M wealth tax; business-side Federal Infrastructure Fee section) · Updated May 6, 2026 for v2.27.1 (Methodology details documented) · Updated May 6, 2026 for v2.27.2 (comparison table breakdown of three mechanisms) · Updated May 6, 2026 for v2.27.3 (assumptions section and warning element corrected to reflect canonical architecture) · Updated May 9, 2026 for v3.7.7 (Pillar Eight Universal Paid Family Time and Pillar Nine Universal Long-Term Care contributions added; Pillars Ten through Twelve documented as aggregate-level; assumptions section expanded; What This Calculator Does Not Model section refreshed) · Updated May 10, 2026 for v3.7.19 (Pillar Eight canonical employer/employee split 0.25%/0.15% documented; calculator caveat language removed as approximation is now canonical) · Updated May 10, 2026 for v3.7.19 (Pillar 8 split canonicalized: 0.25% employer / 0.15% employee = 0.4% combined) · Updated May 12, 2026 for v3.7.23 (Option E both-sides display: rate constants split into employee/employer/combined per pillar; assumption list, methodology section, and result rows restructured to show all three values per pillar instead of a single "displayed rate"; resolves OIR PROCESS-4 contribution-display-convention question)

This calculator produces a personalized side-by-side comparison of your household's costs under the current US system versus the We The People platform. Every input is editable. Every assumption is visible. The platform documents in folders 02 and 05 explain the architecture; this tool lets you see what it means for your specific situation.

The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is transmitted anywhere. You can save the file to disk and use it offline.

Healthcare scope: The platform's universal healthcare commitment includes basic dental (preventive and restorative) and basic vision (eye exams and eye disease treatment) per the German GKV standard, in addition to medical and prescription drug coverage. If you currently pay for dental or vision premiums or out-of-pocket, include those amounts in the healthcare premium and out-of-pocket fields below to get an accurate comparison.

To match the published examples in Does This Raise Taxes or What This Means For You, use the methodology toggle below.

### Before You Begin: What This Calculator Models

This calculator models the platform's effect on a working-income household with a standard filing status. If your household matches that pattern (Single, Married Filing Jointly, or Head of Household, with labor income as the primary source), you can proceed below and the result will be informative for your situation.

If your household does not match that pattern, the calculator's result will be incomplete or misleading. The platform addresses many specific situations through detailed analytical work that this calculator does not yet incorporate. Find the document closest to your situation:

Specific situations the calculator does not currently model — click to see the relevant analytical document for your situation

- If you are retired or near retirement (receiving Social Security, pension, IRA, 401(k) distributions): see Existing Pensioners and the Platform. This calculator does not model retirement income or the early-retiree healthcare gap for spouses under 65.
- If you live with a partner without being married (cohabiting): see Cohabiting Unmarried Couples. This calculator does not model the differential treatment of cohabiting versus married couples.
- If you live in a multigenerational household (three or more generations under one roof, or adult children with parents, or grandparents raising grandchildren): see Multigenerational Households. This calculator treats your household as a single filer rather than recognizing the multigenerational structure.
- If you are a federal, state, or local government employee (covered by FEHB, TRICARE, or non-Section-218 state pension systems): see Public-Sector Worker Transitions. This calculator does not model FEHB or TRICARE healthcare coverage or non-FICA retirement systems.
- If you receive Section 8 housing voucher assistance: see Section 8 Housing and Federal Housing Assistance. This calculator does not model HUD income calculations or apparent-rent-increase dynamics.
- If you receive TANF cash assistance: see TANF and Cash Assistance. This calculator does not model TANF interactions.
- If you are not a US citizen (lawful permanent resident, work authorization, mixed-status family): see Non-Citizens And Platform Eligibility. This calculator assumes US citizen filing status.
- If you live in a US territory (Puerto Rico, Guam, USVI, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa): see US Territories and the Platform. This calculator assumes US state residency with full federal income tax exposure.
- If you live in a CCRC, assisted living, or use long-term care services: see Aging-in-Place Implications and the Pillar Nine substantiation document. The calculator now models the Pillar Nine (Universal Long-Term Care) contribution as a platform-side cost but does not model the benefit, which accrues at need-time. Households currently using long-term care services would see a substantial offset to the contribution.
- If your household income is above $1,000,000: the calculator includes a wealth surcharge warning. See the existing notice that appears below your inputs.

A future calculator release will support these scenarios directly. For now, the analytical documents above provide situation-specific analysis that this calculator does not yet automate.

## Your Household

Filing status
Gross household income (annual, $)
Dependent children under 17 (eligible for Child Tax Credit)
Children needing childcare (under 5)
Household net worth (optional, for wealth-based mechanisms) Only relevant if >$10M. Leave at 0 if unsure or not applicable.

## Your Wage Floor

The platform's federal income tax architecture replaces the standard deduction with a wage floor exemption equal to the BLS 25th-percentile wage for your occupation. For two-earner households, the household exemption is the sum of both earners' floors. Pick a category that fits, then override the floor value if you have a more accurate number for your specific occupation.

Occupation category
Primary earner's wage floor ($) 25th-pct BLS by occupation
Second earner
Secondary earner's wage floor ($) If two earners

## Your Current Costs

These are costs you pay today under the current US system. The platform changes most of these. Enter your actual figures or use the defaults.

State income tax rate (%) 0% in 9 states, up to 13%
Health insurance premium, household share — medical + dental + vision (annual $) KFF avg $6,575/family
Out-of-pocket healthcare — medical + dental + vision (annual $) Avg ~$4,500/household
Childcare cost per child needing care (annual $) Avg ~$13,710/yr; halve for partial-year
Broadband subscription (annual $) Avg ~$75/mo = $900/yr
Tax preparation expected value (annual $) ~$300 if used, half of households

## Methodology

High-earner architecture (v2.27 canonical, three distinct mechanisms)

The platform's high-earner contribution architecture is three distinct mechanisms documented in OIR Section 10:

- Mechanism 1 — Graduated income surcharge: Additional brackets above the existing 37% top federal rate. Single/HoH: +5% above $250K, +10% above $500K, +15% above $1M. MFJ: thresholds doubled (+5% above $500K, +10% above $1M, +15% above $2M). Source: Wage Floors as Tax Architecture.
- Mechanism 2 — Small wealth surcharge: 0.5% annually on net worth above $10M. Source: Federal Fiscal Impact Analysis "small wealth surcharge above the $10M threshold". The 0.5% rate is the Calculator's interpretation of "small" relative to Mechanism 3.
- Mechanism 3 — Wealth tax: 2.5% annually on net worth above $50M. Funds the Sovereign Investment Fund's initial corpus accumulation. Source: Per Citizen Benefits and Costs and Coalition Walkthrough document a 2-3% rate range; the Calculator uses 2.5% as the midpoint.

Combined revenue from all three mechanisms at projected income/wealth distributions matches FFIA's $200B/year wealth tax architecture line. To see Mechanism 2 and 3 in your results, enter your household net worth in the optional input above. Most users will see only Mechanism 1.

Federal Infrastructure Fee (business-side, v2.27)

The collapsible "If you're a business owner" section implements the Federal Infrastructure Fee document's Hybrid Structure D (Section 6):

- Location fee: $600/year per business location.
- Employee fee: $175/year per employee, with the first 25 employees exempt (small-business protection).
- Revenue surcharge: 0.035% on annual revenue above $50M.
- Public-purpose exemption: Public hospitals, public schools, public libraries, public safety entities, tribal nation governments, public housing authorities, public transit, federal/state/local government agencies pay $0.

The fee replaces the Universal Service Fund and consolidates state telecom taxes into a single federal mechanism. For most small businesses, the new fee is comparable to or less than what they currently pay across the patchwork of telecom-related taxes and fees. See the Federal Infrastructure Fee document for full architecture.

The two main platform documents use different methodological choices. This toggle lets the calculator match either, or use a custom blend.

Match document: Does This Raise Taxes (broader scope, transition state) What This Means For You (federal-channel, mature state)
Payroll tax timeframe: Transition (FICA continues at 7.65%) Mature (FICA absorbed into universal healthcare)

## Side-by-Side Comparison

Net annual change
$0
Computed from your inputs
⚠ High-earner architecture applies to your household

Your inputs trigger one or more of the platform's three high-earner mechanisms (per the canonical OPEN-2 architecture documented in OIR Section 10):

- Mechanism 1 — Graduated income surcharge applies when income exceeds $250K (single/HoH) or $500K (MFJ): +5%/+10%/+15% at $250K/$500K/$1M for singles, doubled for MFJ.
- Mechanism 2 — Small wealth surcharge of 0.5% applies when household net worth exceeds $10M.
- Mechanism 3 — Wealth tax of 2.5% applies when household net worth exceeds $50M (funds Sovereign Investment Fund corpus).

The comparison table above shows each mechanism on its own row when active. The decomposition section shows the high-earner architecture's combined effect on your household. See the methodology section for sources and rate calibration reasoning.

If you're a business owner: Federal Infrastructure Fee

The Federal Infrastructure Fee replaces the Universal Service Fund and consolidates state telecom taxes into a single federal mechanism for cost recovery on federally-owned broadband and cellular infrastructure. The hybrid fee structure (per the Federal Infrastructure Fee document Section 6) has three components: location fee, employee fee with small-business exemption, and revenue surcharge above $50M. Public-purpose entities are exempt.

Number of business locations
Number of employees First 25 employees are exempt from the per-employee fee.
Annual revenue ($) Surcharge applies only to revenue above $50M.
Public-purpose entity?
Estimated annual Federal Infrastructure Fee:

Location fee ($600 × locations) | $0
Employee fee ($175 × employees over 25) | $0
Revenue surcharge (0.035% on revenue > $50M) | $0
Total annual fee | $0

Replaces existing USF surcharges (currently ~3-4% on telecom services) and state telecom taxes. For most small businesses, the new fee is comparable to or less than what they currently pay across the patchwork of telecom-related taxes and fees.

Cost category | Current | Platform | Change
--- | --- | --- | ---

## Decomposition: Where the Change Comes From

The platform's effect on your household decomposes into four sources. Even if you exclude any of them as a thought experiment (for example, assuming the adjacent pillars never pass), you can see what the remaining pillars deliver.

Show all assumptions used by this calculation

This calculator uses the following constants. All are visible in the source code and editable through the inputs above.

### Federal Tax Brackets (2024)

- Single 10% bracket$0 – $11,600
- Single 12% bracket$11,600 – $47,150
- Single 22% bracket$47,150 – $100,525
- Single 24% bracket$100,525 – $191,950
- Single 32% bracket$191,950 – $243,725
- Single 35% bracket$243,725 – $609,350
- Single 37% bracket$609,350+
- MFJ 10% bracket$0 – $23,200
- MFJ 12% bracket$23,200 – $94,300
- MFJ 22% bracket$94,300 – $201,050
- MFJ 24% bracket$201,050 – $383,900
- MFJ 32% bracket$383,900 – $487,450
- MFJ 35% bracket$487,450 – $731,200
- MFJ 37% bracket$731,200+
- HoH 10% bracket$0 – $16,550
- HoH 12% bracket$16,550 – $63,100
- HoH 22% bracket$63,100 – $100,500

The platform preserves these brackets unchanged. The Tax Bracket Architecture subsection in Wage Floors as Tax Architecture substantiates this commitment. The high-earner architecture is the canonical three-mechanism structure documented in OIR Section 10 (per the v2.26.3 OPEN-2 resolution). Mechanism 1 is the graduated income surcharge: +5% on income above $250K, +10% on income above $500K, +15% on income above $1M (single/HoH thresholds; doubled for MFJ). Mechanism 2 is the small wealth surcharge of 0.5% annually on net worth above $10M. Mechanism 3 is the wealth tax of 2.5% annually on net worth above $50M. All three mechanisms are now modeled in this calculator (added in v2.27, with comparison-table breakdown added in v2.27.2). To see Mechanisms 2 and 3 in your results, enter your household net worth in the optional input.

### Standard Deductions (2024)

- Single$14,600
- Married Filing Jointly$29,200
- Head of Household$21,900

Used on the current side. The platform replaces these with the wage floor exemption.

### Child Tax Credit

- Per child under 17$2,000
- Refundable up to$1,600 (current law)

Applied on both the current and platform sides. The platform does not modify the CTC structure.

### Platform Contribution Rates (% of payroll, total economic burden)

- Universal Healthcare 2% employee + 4% employer = 6% combined
- Universal Childcare 0.5% employee + 0.8% employer = 1.3% combined
- Universal Mental Health 0.3% employee + 0.5% employer = 0.8% combined
- Universal Paid Family Time 0.15% employee + 0.25% employer = 0.4% combined
- Universal Long-Term Care 0.4% employee + 0.6% employer = 1.0% combined

As of v3.7.23 this calculator shows both the employee share (visible on a worker's paystub) and the employer share (paid by the firm on the worker's behalf) for each pillar contribution, plus the combined rate. Earlier calculator versions and earlier comparison tables across the platform displayed only one side, with inconsistent choices across documents — this was the source of long-standing apparent contradictions in citizen-facing materials. The both-sides display resolves that by simply showing both rather than picking one. Under standard tax-incidence theory, the combined rate represents the full economic burden on the worker: the employer's contribution comes from wages that would otherwise be paid to the employee. The Federal Fiscal Impact Analysis uses the combined rates (6%, 1.3%, 0.8%, 0.4%, 1.0%) for revenue projection because that is what the federal program collects in aggregate. The calculator's totals reconcile to FFIA at the combined rate; the employee-only and employer-only views show the per-side breakdown that would appear on a paystub or in a firm's labor-cost ledger.

### Pillars Ten, Eleven, and Twelve (Aggregate-Level Funding; Not Per-Household Calculation)

Pillars Ten (Federal Housing Investment), Eleven (Climate Architecture), and Twelve (Immigration Architecture) are funded through mechanisms that do not produce per-household payroll contributions in the citizen-facing tables, and they are therefore not displayed as individual contribution-rate rows in this calculator. The mechanisms are documented at the aggregate level in the Federal Fiscal Impact Analysis:

- Pillar Ten (Federal Housing Investment): general revenue from the high-earner architecture (graduated income surcharge plus wealth surcharge plus wealth tax). The high-earner mechanisms ARE modeled in this calculator. No additional per-household line is needed.aggregate $145B/yr
- Pillar Eleven (Climate Architecture): carbon price ($50→$100 per ton phase-in) split 50/50 between household dividend and infrastructure investment. Households pay through carbon-priced consumer goods AND receive a per-capita dividend; the net effect for most households is approximately neutral, with high-consumption households net negative and low-consumption households net positive. Per-household modeling requires household carbon-footprint estimates not collected by this calculator.net effect ~ neutral for typical household
- Pillar Twelve (Immigration Architecture): general revenue plus user fees on visa categories. No payroll contribution. CBO-projected net positive fiscal impact over 10-year window.aggregate $30-50B/yr gross; positive net

### Platform Civic Infrastructure Effects

- Broadband under platform$0 (universal access)
- Tax preparation under platform$0 (Direct File handles wage floor calculation)
- Identity theft expected loss, current$100/yr (across population)
- Identity theft expected loss, platform$15/yr (Federal Identity Infrastructure)
- Founding Stake (one-time)$2

### Platform Healthcare Effects

- Health insurance premium, platform$0 (replaced by universal coverage)
- Out-of-pocket medical, platform~33% of current (copays only, no deductibles)

### Platform Childcare Effects

- Childcare cost per child, platform$2,500/yr (Quebec model: $10/day × ~250 days)

### Wage Floor Defaults by Occupation Category

- Service / care / retail (representative)$28,000
- Skilled trades / clerical / mid-skill (default)$42,000
- Mid-career professional$55,000
- Senior / specialized professional$80,000

These are illustrative representative values. The platform's actual implementation would use BLS 25th-percentile by specific occupation code. If you know the specific number for your occupation, override the value above. The Wage Floor Empirical Analysis model contains the underlying BLS data.

### What This Calculator Does Not Model

- Refundable Transition Bridge Credit: the v2.1 bridge credit that helps households whose net position would otherwise worsen during transition is not modeled.
- Sovereign Fund and aggregate fiscal effects: the macroeconomic effects on the federal deficit, GDP growth, and so on are addressed in the Federal Fiscal Impact Analysis at the aggregate level, not at the per-household level here.
- Pillar Eight benefits: the calculator displays the Pillar Eight (Universal Paid Family Time) contribution as a platform-side cost but does not model the benefit, which accrues at usage time (paid leave during a covered event). Households that use Pillar Eight benefits during a year would see a substantial offset to the contribution that year; households not using the benefit see only the contribution.
- Pillar Nine benefits: the calculator displays the Pillar Nine (Universal Long-Term Care) contribution as a platform-side cost but does not model the benefit, which accrues at need-time (typically late in life). The contribution is paid throughout working life; the benefit replaces large out-of-pocket long-term-care expenses that would otherwise be borne when needed.
- Pillar Eleven (Climate Architecture): not modeled per-household. The carbon price flows through consumer prices and a per-capita dividend partially offsets the household-level effect; net effect for typical households is approximately neutral. Per-household modeling requires household carbon-footprint inputs not collected here.
- State-specific variations: the calculator uses a single state-tax rate. State-specific tax credits, deductions, and special features are not modeled.
- Self-employment income: the calculator treats all gross income as W-2 wages for FICA purposes. Self-employed taxpayers face different effective rates that this calculator does not adjust for.
- Deferred compensation, capital gains, and investment income: the calculator treats all income as ordinary wage income. Households with substantial capital gains income face different rates that this calculator does not model.

v1.1 · Calculator delivered with platform package v2.13 · Source code in this HTML file is the authoritative implementation.