Depardieu says he paid 85% of his 2012 income to taxes

[mainer]

24. I'm trying to come up with a calculation for this to happen

but I'm having trouble. A very poor person with almost no income would indeed pay sales taxes but in many states, food is tax-free. To pay 85% of your income in sales tax/use taxes would mean your income is so low that you're getting federal or state support for Medicaid or food stamps.

If you purchase $20,000 of items in a year and paid 5% sales tax on that, it amounts to $1000 in taxes. For that to be 85% of your income, it means you're only making about $1300 a year. Which means you're getting federal/state subsidies to survive, which cannot be considered income but which actually means you're getting a net back from the government.

Help me come up with the scenario of "many low-income people" paying 85% in taxes.