Congrats. Don't ever let anyone trick you into not working. One of the dumbest reasons for not working and making more money I've heard recently was someone didn't want to work overtime because that would bump them to the next tax bracket so their overtime check would result in a higher tax bill. Stupid advice from someone who doesn't understand math.
Work 10 hours at $10/hr, you earn $100. Taxed at 20%, you take home $80
Work 15 hours, first 10 at $10/hr and next 5 at $15/hr (typical time and a half overtime), you earn $175. Taxed at 25% (pretty much the top tax bracket for normal people), you still take home $131.25, $51.25 more. More money in your pocket is better than less money, no matter what your stinking tax bracket is.
There are very few cases where earning more money results in less money in your pocket. The first situation is when you're making almost nothing, and the govt may take away welfare benefits if you make over a certain amount. The decision there is between personal pride (being a man, earning your keep, whatever) and living on everyone else's work like a leach. The other case is where "normal" people start to make enough money to really attract the attention of the IRS but still don't quite make enough for creative accounting and tax loopholes to help out. For those poor slobs, earning an extra $10,000 really can cause a massive loss. I know, I hit that bracket 2 years in a row when my wife and I were both making some good coin, had no kids yet and no allowable deductions, so we were slammed by the alternative minimum tax (AMT). That year, I ran the numbers and if we had remained single and each earned just a few thousand less, our taxes would have been about $15,000 less, plus we would have been eligible for more retirement bennies like IRAs. That year we were not allowed to contribute to IRAs and our tax burden was way out of line, thousands higher than expected. If we had had made an additional 100k we probably could have hired an accountant to create a trust or something for us which would create a tax sheltered entity that would then pay us living expenses, so we would not be in AMT territory. As it was, we were in the sweet spot to get hosed by the tax laws. This is exactly why congress threw out the AMT rules a couple years later (actually just boosted the AMT income level up towards a million bucks where it belongs), because it punished people who really worked hard and "made it" finally, but who weren't really rich.
And then we quit making money for other reasons so it didn't matter anymore anyhow
But it you're not bottom-feeding or being hit by a stupid tax loophole that only hits people who are making a lot of money anyhow, don't ever let anyone convince you to not work because your income will be taxed. That's just the three stooges dumb ignorant and lazy talking
