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I know that the tax rate varies based on how happy the Sims are. Let's say my Sims are 99% happy. The tax rate is 20%. But 20% of what?

City hall says I get a tax rate of 20%, which equals §12075 every 24 hours.

If the tax rate were based on population, my population is 104184, so times 20% = §20837. That can't be it, so it must be something else.

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  • I've been trying to figure out the math behind it, but it doesn't quite add up right. I'm also at 20% happiness, but with a population of 467773 and my city hall is reporting that I will collect $18619 in 24 hours.
    – Sorean
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 22:13
  • You get a dollar for every 8.6 people, I get one for 25.1 people. There's a scale in there, but hard to tell without more data.
    – Sorean
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 22:20

4 Answers 4

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Here is what I received from EA:

Please note - the figure of 20% tax is calculated from levels and ratios for happiness and population, it's not as simple as happiness multiplied by population! A 20% tax rate is not simply 20% of your total population number in Simoleon form. If it were this simple an equation, early level Mayors would receive barely anything and find it a real struggle to make money for a long time, whereas higher level Mayors could buy everything in sight and would dominate the Markets. We didn't think this was very fair, particularly for a free-to-play game, and the balance of the game would have suffered too much.

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  • Interesting... so the 20% number is basically meaningless, without any indication of what the other variables are.
    – lemontwist
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 16:28
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    @lemontwist it's… "just a number". Don't consider it as "20% of something", rather as "taxes, second tier" or something like that.
    – o0'.
    Commented Jan 30, 2015 at 9:26
  • @Lohoris, then why do they have different rates for different happiness levels??
    – lemontwist
    Commented Feb 8, 2015 at 13:48
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Actually, what I noticed is that it seems to be 20% of your base population based on number of residences without the adders for parks, transport etc. So even though I have a population of 350,000 without all of the population boosters my population should be around 72,000. Big difference, but that makes my sense for why my daily tax is less than $15,000.

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  • That sounds reasonable, but the math just isn't working out. My base population is 298,444. After I subtract the population enhancement from parks, education, transportation, entertainment, gambling and landmarks, my population is 141,049. My tax rate is 20%. IF your theory were true, my tax would be §28,210, however it is §15,571.
    – lemontwist
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 12:25
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One thing which is quite obvious is that the tax is good at lower levels but exponentially decreases with every population. I was able to raise the tax to 10k when I had 100k population, but now I am at 150k population and the tax is only 12k. (Both at 99% happiness)

This seems to be a well designed trick by EA. People who are deeply engaged in the game and rising in population are more susceptible to spending money.

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    Please try to use some facts to verify your answer. The tax rate doesn't exponentially decrease with population, it increases, but slowly. This thread is about trying to determine what creates the tax rate and justify it with gameplay experience.
    – lemontwist
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 12:29
  • @lemontwist I certainly provided some numbers in my answer above. As long as your comment is concerned, the increase in tax certainly decreases with the increase in population. It appears you did not pay enough attention to the details.
    – Anshu
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 13:07
  • then please edit your answer for more clarity. Also your numbers are estimates and are not exact, so are not terribly helpful.
    – lemontwist
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 13:11
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I got the same BS answer from EA. if you really want to know how your paid the 20 percent is absolutely meaningless. using regression trend lines on Excel I have formulated the equations, note this is with 100% happiness. Y=.018x+10199 I started this with my population at 110704. This tells you how much money one will receive with x=pop. Y=-.06ln(x)+.8063 this is the percentage you get per population this is a downward logarithmic trendline. the first equation has an R value of 1 and I have 9 different points, an R value of one is perfect. the second trend line has an R value of .976 which is close to perfect.

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  • Are you using base population or the population with added modifiers from things like parks/education/landmarks/etc?
    – lemontwist
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 15:40
  • This is all pop at 100% happiness, the first equation is flawless, the second gives a great approximation of the declining percentage of taxes vs population this is mathematically sound done on excel
    – oblib
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 21:32
  • In other words this is with parks, schools, trans, and entertainment
    – oblib
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 21:36

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