Patrick-in-Chicago
12th January 2011 |
Average and marginal tax rate rankings are interesting but at least very imperfect in what they really mean. Personally, I'm more interested in what I have left for discretionary spending after taxes and necessary services are paid.
For instance, if you calculate what the average American spends on Education and Healthcare per year (services that are largely paid by taxes in European countries), we end up having just a little less left than Europeans (but with Europeans having a higher education and healthcare productivity rate). |
roscot
18th August 2010 |
ive had a gut full of busting. in aust same as rest of world we work to live but do we get ahead ---nnnoooooo ! i have sat down and thought about my retirement- age 43= work to 65 in aust and still not have enough to retire on in aust!!! but at 50 yr can retire in thailand in style!!!! i can not wait to turn 50 so i can finalyenjoy life |
D
12th May 2010 |
I am certain New Zealand’s figure is wrong. |
stagename
31st March 2010 |
@tom travis
Just move back home or stop whining.
Also consider that a liberal-oriented economy is correlated with less crime, higher rate of graduation and generally a better standard of living.
If you're thinking of arguing, please move back home. Or let's talk about this subject again when you'll be a citizen. |
hi
1st March 2010 |
everyone wants to kill us so the thing i would like the most is a good army. u go ahead and protect yourself from other armies on your own. I'd rather have a country that can protect me than one with really nice libraries. When you're the most powerful country in the world in almost evety way you have to have a good army. Im so sick of people complaining about the spending on the military. In the world we live in today it has to be strong. its too bad really. if everyone was a peace lover than we wouldnt have to spend as much. but theyre not. |
David
19th August 2009 |
Why do all these lists I have been seeing on the internet show a TRUE TOTAL of tzex paid in the U.S.
Income tax is only a small part of taxes I pay. What about payroll tax (what your company has to pay to match your income tax, which could be given to me instead). Sales tax, property tax, state tax, local tax.
THis is just another way for Goverment to hide the truths about what it really receives and what they want yout o believe it receives. |
William Walker (Jackson, NJ)
5th August 2008 |
21 out of 29 ?? Why do Americans believe they are so overtaxed? |
Laurie (France)
17th January 2008 |
I question the rate for Australia. This
http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=5053&mfp=001
shows that income tax alone for most people is well over the amount in the table, not including sales taxes etc. |
Barry Woodfield (New Zealand)
16th May 2007 |
I question your list of counties in order of Taxing. You say NewZealand is on 19.6 % I pay (as a working class worker on the average wage) pay 33% at source Then pay 12.5% G.S.T. on ALL purchaces. Along with that petrol is tax at 47%. I fail to see where you get 19.6% Kind regards Barry |
Frank (Guyana)
4th May 2007 |
Germany has a progessive tax rate system with 100s to thousands of exceptions. Results in a relatively fair Tax System. Problem is the double and triple taxation. A solution to this could be the recent idea of the "Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen", which would discontinue all sort of taxes and only VAT (of 40 to 50 percent) would be applied to all goods and services. Progressive Income Tax is superior to the fixed or banded rates. If you earn only little more then tax free allowance, you start with 1%, progressing to around 40% (2007) when you reach the maximum taxable income. |
Rik (CA, USA)
11th March 2007 |
Is it an accident that taxation is so complicated no one can figure it out? Do governments think that if they tax us a little, fifty times, we won't notice? If all the benefits of living a particular society have a cost, then they should just charge a fee for living there.
I like the idea of leveling incomes with taxation, but that's because I'm poor. It really isn't fare. |
Joy Wright (Washington DC)
23rd February 2007 |
Taxes in America
Fact: Income tax is illegal, as it
has never been voted on by the majority.
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor,
tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.
Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries, then
Tax his tears.
Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers,
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.
Put these words
upon his tomb,
"Taxes drove me
to my doom..."
When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax,
Fuel permit tax
Federal gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest expense
Inventory tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road usage taxes
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago in the US,
and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What happened? The people we call representatives in
DC screwed everything up and are making things even worse
by mortgaging our future, living the high life on credit.
Like the 1920's, a similar depression is soon to hit the
US, then it will domino thruout the world. The so called
third world countries will then have to opportunity to
'leap frog' ahead, able to use new technologies and
avert entrenched wealth and static capital investment. |
INQ (Atlanta)
7th February 2007 |
Anyone know the personal income tax rate for Portugal? Is it progressive and if so what would the rate be for income of between $50 to $55K Euros? |
Freddy (Belgium)
22nd December 2006 |
"also have something similiar to our state, local, and sales taxes?"
More then you! 21% sales taxes, taxes everywhere we go.
I wanna bet we have double as much taxes : European, Belgium, Flanders, province, city, ... and a lot - and i mean a lot - more!(on the water, on the electricity, tv, living next to a route, propriety, car taxes!, kyoto taxes, ...)
(Look at the internet charges) |
Tom Travis (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
16th October 2006 |
I would like some comparative statistics on Federal AND PROVINCIAL taxes in Quebec. We are Americans living here in Quebec it is UNBELIEVABLE how much sales and income tax there is. 6% Fed. and 7.5% Provincial Tax. And then we get checks from the governement for rebates on that and for child care and for support of children. I can't believe it! Why don't they just let us all earn and keep our money rather than sending so much $$ into them (the gov't) and they RE-dispurse it. Wealth equalization is ludicrious. |
nickleus (norway)
14th August 2006 |
Ales, quite a general statement. I am a foreigner in Norway and am taxed exactly like everybody else. I think i pay about 36% on wages, but Norway has the craziest tax and fee system here that if you add it all up i think i pay about 80% in taxes and fees. I earn probably double of what an average worker in the states earns, but it is seriously impossible to save any money. We pay 25% in sales tax. Cars here cost twice as much as they do in the states (50% of the price goes directly to the government). Gas costs an equivalent of $8 per gallon. There are tax/fees on everything imagineable. The toll fees make it almost impossible/unprofitable to import anything at all from outside countries. But in spite of this, Norway is one of the best places i have ever lived. |
padrede3 (California)
12th June 2006 |
The tax rate for Mexico can;t be right; having worked there for 20 years I know for a fact that it's AT LEAST 35%. Flawed data? |
Titinho (Brazil)
30th May 2006 |
Brazil is the most corrupt and have the highest taxes in the world. A simple worker would pay more than 27,5% of his salary in taxes. |
Imran (Bahrain)
27th May 2006 |
We dont have any taxes in Bahrain. Zero taxes, no healthcare though. However its all Tax Free. |
Ales
21st March 2006 |
America has some of the highest taxed working class people if you actually do all the calculations. Also people who talk about living in other countries as a foreigner should remember that they generarly get taxed differently than locals and most importantly will never see the benefits of their taxed incomes. Such as subsidized or paid for education, paid for medical, dental, day care, maturnity leave, etc. |
John M
20th February 2006 |
There must be two countries named Australia on this planet. I, of course, do NOT live in the one with a tax rate of 23.1%. No, I start at higher than that rate WITHOUT including Medicare Tax, Superannuation (Pension Tax), GST, Stamp Duty, Land Tax, Property Rates, Fuel Excise, Wine Equalization Tax and more and more. WHERE IS THE OTHER AUSTRALIA, AND DOES MY CURRENT AUSTRALIAN PASSPORT GET ME IN? |
Mrs. Havisham
5th February 2006 |
Many UK teachers get paid up to £40k a year (after a few years of working) and that's the sum u get 2 take home after the really high income taxes on teachers (they REALLY like to tax the teachers here)! |
the J
1st February 2006 |
This is a very complex issue, there are many factors to this. First you have to consider the end buy power of the person. It's is what the individual sees as his real income even tough they will complain as hell.
Now even in countries like Sweeden and Finland (i have worked in both, as well as england) where the tax rate is orbitaly high, the buy power of a person is relatively high despite of this fact. Offcourse theres burden to the person in question but mostly it affects empleyment.
Now in the nordic countries the taxation widh is considerably higher than 50% because of what the employer pays too like said earlier...
What is the benefit? Well for one thing, education even higer university degrees are FREE OF CHARGE, that also means students are partialy paid for living too during this time. This mean that the avarage finn saves some quarter of a million euros in educational cost, of their 5-7 years average university studies.
Same applies to halthcare wich is only done better in canada IMHO.
Now also the nordic taxation is progressive so that it avarages the salaries between high pay and low pay workers. This mans that theres a relavively low crime rate in theese countries, especialy the more populatinaly homogenous finnland and norway (tough finns have long lasting tradition of knifing their drinking buddies to death).
And last but not least some of the taxes come back to you in other forms, one is the very long and paid, job back guaranteed sweedish and finnish materinty/fathernity leaves.
However the systems have hard time coping with the reverse pyramidial form of their population age structure. To wich end finns have worked much but sweeds not so, time will tell wichone will pan out. |
Doug
30th January 2006 |
Canada has a VAT called GST here of 7 per cent,each province then levies its own provincial sales tax on top of that,which ranges from 12 per cent in Newfoundland to 0 in Alberta. |
rudyj zabijak czech
11th January 2006 |
here in Czech is the same situation like in Sweden. you have tax 43, but every employer is paying next 32% from your salary. than there is VAT which is 5% for food and 19% for all the other things. So Tax in general is smthk about 62% of your salary. And... I think, the Life Level in Sweden is complaining their taxes, in CZ ... pche... everything here in this country is just about corruption, idiotic investigation (again because of corruption) and about corruption and also about corruption etc. |
ilya -MOSCOW,RUSSIA
26th December 2005 |
we have here only 13% personal income tax!
and 18% VAT
and company profit tax is only 24%
it's a good place to live in if you have a body-gaurd and a big income (more than a million $ per year) like me... |
Joel
25th December 2005 |
Here in North America where the average earner pay's 30% of their income in taxes is enough to make most people complain a little but not a lot. How can someone never mind the average person pay 40%+ is shocking. |
Andre
11th December 2005 |
Canada by far is NOT the highest taxed wealthy country. Vat is 15%, however Vat is 0 on food and children items. Province Alberta has only 6 or 7% Vat.
I have the data for 1996: Average family income (with kids under 15) was then $68 000, and after ALL deductions including Federal and private pension plans, union fees, and Employment insurance, families were left with $50 000, which accounts for about 25% of total pay check deductions. However, net income tax accounts for about 15% of that amount. Now, 10 years later, average family income in Greater Toronto Area is about 76 000$ and taxation applies accordingly and quite similar to mentioned above. Liberals are talking about lowering it further. Keep in mind that unlike US, which is taxed similarly, Canadians enjoy 100% free health care, flexible subsidies on Child care, better Employment Insurance,including 1 year paid Maternity leave and free adult education curses, Child benefits, and much lower cost of higher education. Therefore, Canada is less taxed than US and especially EU. I immigrated here from Holland and definitely noticed the difference!
Income Taxation rises sharply if person earns over 100 000. I was surprised to see Australia and NZ that low on the scale, and, well, as for UK, I do not believe it. I know it is about 45% combined. |
samina
5th December 2005 |
anyone know how the Canadian tax system affects the average middle class family. |
hatussas
25th November 2005 |
ahh thats y no foreigners want to work in cz |
stockholm-ex
19th November 2005 |
Sweden hides its full taxation by shifting a large portion of it to the employer. He has to add some 40 odd percent to each paycheck.
Then you add 25 percent salestax to most things purchased.
In a world market to pay the net same to a Swedish worker you'd have to pay him ~40% less. That would mean a total eqvivalent taxation of about 72%. The employer cannot obviously print the extra 40% so it comes back as a lower wage, or an outsourced job. On the bonus side of the equation tax cheating becomes very profitable, and unfortunately the focus on productivity and invention shifts to escaping taxes as the main priority to increase profits, which makes the productivity and invention suffer.
Not very smart. I don't think the feudal lords charged that much tax. |
J.C.
7th November 2005 |
I knew Belgium (my country) had high taxes, but being one of the 10,5 million (our average population) highest taxed people in the world, well... word's fail me on that one...
how would it make you feel? |
23-year-old grad student paying into a d
5th November 2005 |
Wow. I am SO moving to Australia, New Zealand or Iceland when I graduate. The US has absolutely awful social services for its level of taxation. I didn't go to the public schools because they were so bad, and now I'm paying 2X as much to go to a public university as I did to go to a private one for my undergrad. Plus, health care is enormously expensive and only old people get it for free.
I guess all the tax money goes to support our military dominance. Goodie. |
Alex Guerrero
3rd November 2005 |
The case of Mexico is completely right (>15%), Eliana. A 30% VAT doesn't mean that the tax burden on GDP is 30%. Consumption taxes are a portion of the total tax burden, and there exist evasion, black economy and other elements that lower the ammount of final revenue. |
jeff garner
22nd October 2005 |
what is the taxation in the Dominican Republic for individuals in income tax? |
jeff garner
22nd October 2005 |
what is the taxation for individuals in income tax? |
Paul
22nd October 2005 |
I am an American working in Germany and believe me even with all the U.S. taxes combined it doesn't come close to what they pay here.First of all 50% of your pay goes to taxes and that does NOT include health insurance which is separate, paid half by your employer. Add to that 16% sales tax plus your car taxes and you will come up with a 90% of your gross income being taxed. Also I have no idea how they came up with the United Kingdom being at #22 they are very heavily taxed too maby not the income but things like sales,ground and automobile taxes are outrages. |
demographer from HongKong
16th October 2005 |
One important explanation for the gap between the USA and the Continental European countries is that a working American on average income would paying 10% of his/her income to medical insurance (which is not included in this statistics) While cost of healthcare is already counted for most European countries. |
Oldnumber7
16th October 2005 |
The calculations above are a tricky business. In the US, for example, the numbers above don't count the taxes that every worker never sees (i.e. the "employer's share" of Social Security and Medicare -- another 7.65 percent on top of what comes directly from the worker's paycheck). If you also add other employer taxes (e.g. worker's comp, unemployment) that are part of the cost of labor you'll find average taxes as a share of an employee's worth are much higher than reported above -- roughly 42 percent in the US. Then include uncompensated costs for health and auto insurance claims that are shifted to income earners and you'll find the out-of-pocket social burden for the average worker goes up even higher. We may not call it taxation in the US, but it amounts to taxation. |
steve
9th October 2005 |
are u taking into account lost future value of high taxes paid ???
a tax reduction yielding an additional $2,000 per year to invest would grow to $253,000 at 5% in 40 years.
$596,000 at 10% in 35 years.
when u consider future value, the socialist high tax countries lag far behind. U do not get what u pay for.
nothing is free. |
Ted
29th September 2005 |
We ought to move like minded people to societies of their choice: All the statistics to their preferred nanny countries, all the free marketers to their jungles. The former seem to think other citizens owe them, regardless what they do with their lives. The latter think no one owes them a thing. The latter, it turns out, are much more charitable. Since governments consistently do the idiotic (e.g., Not recognizing the economic inevitability of vastly increasing their numbers when you give a monthly stipend to unwed mothers, or paying $600 for a $20 hammer, or taking $45,000 out of the economy to give $15,000 to a needy family), I think charity is a better option. It is also better for the soul. |
Mohammed Arif
9th September 2005 |
It is worth to be mentioned about tax system of India which is so complicated that it is hardly understood by common man. It should be simple and in brief. If Govt. of India can punish the corrupt politician who are doing millions of corruption with different name of scams then Indian can be one of riches nation of the world and there will be no jobless person. |
Doug
4th September 2005 |
Wow, and I thought we were taxed bad here in Australia... I guess i was wrong... |
Some1
11th August 2005 |
Israel according to this chart is fourth most taxed (or taxing...) in the world in individual income tax levels, yet unmentioned: 49%
http://www.worldwide-tax.com/israel/israel_tax.asp |
phods
4th August 2005 |
What about other countries in the world as Asian countries? And can you have another list with full TAX(Including sales tax & income tax and other sundry taxes)? Thanks |
Peter A
27th July 2005 |
It's interesting that the richest areas of the world are also the most taxed - EU, North America, Australia and Japan. |
Rich
26th July 2005 |
I have to agree with the majority, which is quite a change for me! Comparing only a subset of taxes renders any sort of comparison between countries meaningless. A national government that does it's own dirty work and distributes the spoils to it's regional and local minions would appear to be somehow worse than a government where the local yocals robbed the serfs up close and personal, and passed the booty upwared. But there is no moral differance between the systems: Slavery is slavery. Anyone who takes, by force, by fraud or by threat, the fruits of another man's labor is a slavor, whether he uses the money to succor orphans, to spread the word of god, to make war or to buy lots and lots of shoes for his beloved spouse. The crime is not the usage of the money, but the theft of time from those who earned it.
Given the choice between giving my money to a government or a corporation, I'll choose the corporation every time. Not because I like them, I'm actually pretty hostile to corporations in general ... but they do have on redeeming feature: they have no power to take anything from anyone by force. To do that, they have to employ the government. |
Eliezer Garza
15th July 2005 |
In the case of Mexico the 15.6% is plain wrong, we pay that much just as sales tax, the normal is around 30% plus sales, plus gas taxes that makes you wonder if you really live in an oil producing country. We even have a new car tax, and all sort f dumb taxes. If you compound all this we come out at about 50%, without the European benefit of social security. |
Michael D
15th July 2005 |
This does cover all taxes. That is why the category is called TOTAL tax wedge. Not partial or incomplete. Nationmaster does include break-downs for value added taxes, income taxes, and other taxes if you want to look them up. And remember, this is just an average. Some people pay far less than 30% of their income in taxes, and some people pay more. If you throw in the EITC for America, some people are given back all their federal income taxes in full, and then on top of that are paid by the federal government to assist them in living.
And as far as saying any country is raped by corporations or raped by government tax rates...you get for what you ask for. A lot of people just like to find something to complain about to make themselves feel better, regardless of if they are a socialist in a capitalist county or a capitalist in a socialist country. Every country's tax structure reflects the overall culture of its people (more or less), and each structure has advantages and disadvantages. I think people need to look beyond the black and white and see that it is a much more complex issue.
Have a good day everyone! =-D |
Pedro
10th July 2005 |
To all; I think you are lucky enough to have an honest government even if some of your taxes are high. Here in the Philippines our income is low and we are taxed to the limit to pay for the worsening national budget. And nearly forty percent of the taxed amount goes to the pocket of corrupt officials. |
AS
8th July 2005 |
SG, why should I have to pay for someone to sit by your elderly father's bedside? "FREE" and "state funded" are terms only a liberal could love. Few things in life are free and medical care is not one of them. And while the state may fund health care, they have to get the funds from somewhere. He is your father, why don't you fund? |
Rob Fowler
2nd July 2005 |
This statistic really needs an additional comment in the definition such as 'this statistic is quite simplistic being only federal taxes and not including regional taxes or goods and services / value added taxes. |
Turner
1st July 2005 |
Living & working in Canada, we celebrate freedom from paying taxes only after July 1st of every year....or in other words, all what we earn in the first half of the year is confiscated by various forms of government through local, provincial & federal bureaucracies. Most purchases charge 7% GST (general sales tax) plus provincial sales tax of about 8% average for most provinces except the province of Alberta (oil & gas revenue!) So the overall figure is probably more than 50%. We do live in a quasi-socialist state where medicare is "free" for all citizens, but the lineups are getting longer. |
Brunello Di Montalcino
23rd June 2005 |
Hi CW, if the numbers only reflect federal income tax as you suggest the USA score would not be as high as 30%. There are times when the top marginal rate is higher than 30% for very few Americans but that rate is only applied to the income earned above the breakoff line from the next lower tax bracket.
Hi CW and FXD Jr, I've lived in Italy before and I have to side with Martin in that if you think our taxes beyond the federal income taxes are make us look European, you can't compare this to only a European nation's income tax but you have to include their sales taxes too. The Italians have both income and consumption taxes (national sales tax) in addition to taxes. My wife used to have to pay a tax every year just to keep her passport current. Their were taxes one cars with more than 2.0 liter engines, owning a TV, owning a diesel car (for those wishing a break on gasoline expenses), and if I recall correctly think just for breathing. |
Mr Mclarichie
19th June 2005 |
Yes, Martin try working in the UK or the USA because they have quite high salaries yet quite low taxes! If you agree please reply to my comment |
FXD Jr
17th June 2005 |
I agree with CW above. He's right.
I have lived in a foreign land for a period of nearly two years. When you add in state and local taxation here, those foreign countries stack up rather well compared to the good old USA, taxation-wise and what you get for your tax dollar.
I don't expect to convert Martin nor William (also above). They seem too patriotic and brainwashed, if you will pardon me. They will probably wrongfully accuse me of being sadly lacking of their zeal and love for the USA.
Perhaps they are right, but it easy for them to accuse me thusly. It doesn't tell the whole story. They are like our President who ardently believes, "America, right or wrong..."
He said this plenty about Iraq and I agreed with him, too. Until too many of those body bags, instead of live service men and women, came home. Then George W. lost me. |
Martin
14th June 2005 |
CW,
I have the "pleasure" to live in such a socialist country, and in addition to a 20% Sales tax (VAT) we also have taxes on gas, which leads to fuel prices of 1.2 Euro / litre, which is 0.26 gallons. So we pay approximately 4.8 Euro per Gallon, which is in 5.8 in usd. |
Teresa
14th June 2005 |
I am shocked at how much everyone gets TAXED!!!!! |
CW
12th June 2005 |
Does this include "National" tax only? If one were to add State, Local, property, and sales tax as well...to say the US...what would that Tax rate be? Likewise, do the countries with the higher national taxes also have something similiar to our state, local, and sales taxes? I think a more representative taxation comparison should include ALL taxes. If it did, we might see that the "socialiast, liberal" European countries with high national tax rates aren't really taxed (in total) that much more than the US...but often times seem to get so much more for their money. |
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