I read most of Donnie Johnston's columns and get a few chuckles now and then. A recent column ["Many voters could use refresher course in U.S. civics," Sept. 14] was no exception. But I have one small correction. His tax math needs correcting.

In the column, he said that if an average American made $100,000 he would pay $25,000 in federal taxes. That is not true. That is not even true in the worst-case scenario and the worst possible luck with taxes.

If you make $100,000, the most federal taxes you would owe would be approximately $18,957. That's almost 19 percent, not 25 percent. And that is for a single guy, not married, no kids, and no deductions--the worst case.

And if you are married, with just a wife and no kids (two-person family), you would owe only about $12,506. That's only 12.5 percent.

Finally, if you are lucky enough to be married with two kids, your worst case of taxes would be about $10,656, only 10.5 percent.

Luckily for us, we do not have a straight, flat percentage for all of our income. But it would be nice to flatten the tax segments and clean up a bunch of the tax loopholes. That would be a big help!

Bottom line: If you make $100,000, you do not owe $25,000 in taxes. You owe much less.

David Hopkins

Spotsylvania