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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEurostat report: The EU continues to have the highest taxed countries in the world.
Danes the highest taxed in Europe, reveals EurostatDenmark, Belgium and France are the highest taxed EU countries according to research by the blocs statistical agency Eurostat.
The data in Eurostats report on Taxation trends in the EU, published on Monday (16 June), found that the Danish government collected tax worth 48.1 percent of economic output in 2012.
Overall, the average tax-to-GDP ratio in the EU increased to 39.4 percent in 2012, slightly up from 38.8 percent the previous year. Eurostat says the rate continued to rise in 2013.
The EU continues to have some of the highest taxed countries in the world. Of the major OECD countries outside the bloc, only Norway, at 42 percent, has a higher tax burden. Meanwhile, the US, Canada and Japan have rates of 25 percent, 28 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
http://euobserver.com/news/124616
Germany's taxes totaled about 39% of GDP, Sweden and France at 44%. It's amazing how much in the way of social services and safety net these countries can provide with an extra 15% of GDP in tax revenue. Of course, a stronger middle class and greater income equality are the result.
The Eurostat report itself is at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-DU-13-001/EN/KS-DU-13-001-EN.PDF.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Americans are suckers.
Aren't the happiest people in the world located in Scandinavian countries? I'll take high taxes.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)be interesting to see how the taxes are distributed. Are they progressive?
As I understand many of them get a lot of revenue from a VAT and that does not seem very progressive.
Interestingly enough, the recent ATRA tax cuts - making most of the Bush tax cuts permanent, are about 3% of GDP.
pampango
(24,692 posts)According to the Eurostat report, VAT represented another 15% to 20% of total tax revenue. The VAT is regressive (as is our FICA though it is based on income while the VAT is based on expenditures). I suppose you could make the case that a regressive tax like our FICA or their VAT creates a sense of ownership in the safety net that they fund (creating "third rails" that politicians are afraid to touch).
With 50%+ coming from progressive income taxes and 15-20% coming from regressive VAT it would seem to be on balance a progressive funding system. It could be better, though, and the EU Commission is making an effort to shift the source of taxes away from labor to environmental, property and capital taxes.
The commission has no powers to change national tax policies but has proposed reforms such as a tax on financial transactions set to be introduced by 11 member states, as well as revising the VAT system and promoting a common corporate tax base.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,405 posts)('transfers' being benefits, both actual money and spending on things like education and health). You can compare the Gini indices for OECD countries before and after taxes and transfers here: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=IDD
You get, for instance - Gini before taxes & transfers, and then after, for 2010 (or 2009 for Japan - most recent year listed):
USA 0.499 0.380
UK 0.523 0.341
Germany 0.492 0.286
France 0.505 0.303
Japan 0.488 0.336
So the pre-tax income distribution in the USA is comparable to many other developed countries, and more equal than the UK; but taxes and transfers make a big difference in evening things up in Germany, pretty big in France, then the UK, then Japan, and then the USA.
hunter
(38,340 posts)roamer65
(36,748 posts)In the USA, I would like to see a moderate cut for lower and middle class taxpayers, coupled by a large increase in the income tax on the wealthy. Also removal of the FICA cap at $110k.
Stay away from a VAT.
pampango
(24,692 posts)system. The net effect of their high taxes and effective safety net is an equitable distribution of income.
Could parts of the total picture be better? Sure. The article even indicates that the EU is pushing countries push more of the tax burden to environmental, property and asset taxation away from the VAT.