system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
Tax brackets literally mean nothing. The cutoffs are arbitrary and do not significantly change your taxes owed.

There is no situation where, if you make $1 more, you owe significantly more taxes than if you don’t make that $1.

Don’t believe me? Open up excel and plot taxes owed vs income. It’s a smooth line. There are no discontinuities/steps that would indicate that you should try to avoid making that extra money — or that you should donate that extra money to avoid significantly increased tax burden that comes from going into a higher bracket.

For example - if you earn $1 extra that puts you into the 35% tax bracket, your tax burden will increase by $.35. Because everything lower than that $1 gets taxed at its respective tax rate — not 35%. Only that $1 gets taxed at 35%.
gpt
my husband the accountant has given up trying to explain progressive taxation to the average person. he went into IT career wise decades ago.