I’m reviewing my 401(k) withholding elections for next year, and I have a relevant tax question for you CB CPAs:

Suppose an unmarried employee makes $45k. Their marginal tax rate next year will be 12%. If they also get a $5k bonus, that is classified as supplemental income, which is always taxed at 22% (unless the bonus is in the millions, but that’s not relevant here). So in this example, the marginal tax rate is still 12% even though their total income is $50k, which would normally put their marginal tax rate at 22%. Right?