DM: For the umpteenth time, I’ve communicated with multiple rabbonim including ones affiliated with the bda.
Sam: If the husband’s salary is $75,000/year and he is paying $20,000/year in Federal, State and municipal taxes, and then he pays his wife $55,000/year, is what I meant he is paying her with his after tax dollars. In other words, he would need to be earning $75K to pay her $55K. [Actually more since he must pay her $55K + inflation from the time of his wedding. And then he is left with no income to support himself and their children.] Whether she must pay taxes on the $55K she received from him is a separate question that I didn’t intend to address.