@JohnnyC99 - the effective tax rate is attempting to determine the effective INCOME tax rate.
The taxes on schedule 2, including the Self-Employment Tax (which is really Social Security and Medicare tax) are not 'income' taxes; they are not based on the income or capital gains tax brackets but rather other formulas (NIIT=3.8%, SE = 15.3%, excess medicare .9%, 10% or 25% penalties on early IRA withdrawals, etc.). It doesn't include medicare or social security off the W-2s, so it shouldn't include SE Tax, which is the same thing.
the income is received from all sources; taxable income is reduced by the standard or iitemized deduction which is rather arbitrary and doesn't reflect all the money i brought in.
personally, I'd like to see it include all my taxes, including my state tax, my social security and my medicare tax, so i get a better picture of how much of my income I am paying out in taxes. But TT chose to display the effective tax on income and capital gains only; it is somewhat misleading and not very helpful. What is more helpful is just stating my tax bracket.
