Unless he's a multi-millionaire who has one of the worst tax preparers in history, he doesn't have a 40% tax rate.
The reason why he thinks his tax rate is 40% is because he's making the mistake that common among financial illiterates, which is confusing the maximum tax rate with the marginal (i.e., actual) tax rate.
The highest Federal tax rate is currently 35%. That bracket applies to people who earn $379,150 or more. But if you earn $379,151, that means that only one of the many dollars you earned is actually taxed at the 35% rate.
Similarly, the highest California tax bracket is currently 11%, for people who earn a million bucks a year or more. But again, only the income that's above $1 million is taxed at that rate. Your first $47,000 in income is going to be taxed at the rate of 0 percent to 10 percent.
And that doesn't even factor in deductions. So even if your income is a million bucks a year, it doesn't mean that your combined state and federal tax rate is 40%.
This is true, yet often when it is brought up as you have done it is a straw man. The OP has in his mind that taxes collected are excessive. If you show him that rates are progressive, he won't decide that enough money is being collected after all. He is only using the tax rate as a rhetorical point -- he points elsewhere for proof that too much is collected.
Edit: should clarify I prepare taxes among other things. I'm NOT saying the brackets aren't progressive, just that this guy isn't saying, "gee, if only we progressed up to 35% things would be fine."
Most people in the middle and upper middle class complain that their taxes are too high in hopes that benevolent, democratically elected lawmakers will lower them. But it's a fact that Americans enjoy an effective tax rate that is quite low by both international and historical standards.
Of course, we're about to learn the consequences of that as we slowly decimate our educational system and national infrastructure, but that's probably a separate discussion.
The reason why he thinks his tax rate is 40% is because he's making the mistake that common among financial illiterates, which is confusing the maximum tax rate with the marginal (i.e., actual) tax rate.
The highest Federal tax rate is currently 35%. That bracket applies to people who earn $379,150 or more. But if you earn $379,151, that means that only one of the many dollars you earned is actually taxed at the 35% rate.
Similarly, the highest California tax bracket is currently 11%, for people who earn a million bucks a year or more. But again, only the income that's above $1 million is taxed at that rate. Your first $47,000 in income is going to be taxed at the rate of 0 percent to 10 percent.
And that doesn't even factor in deductions. So even if your income is a million bucks a year, it doesn't mean that your combined state and federal tax rate is 40%.