U.S. vs Other Countries’ Tax Rates
September 1, 2009 by Miranda Marquit
Filed under Finance
Yesterday, David at My Two Dollars posted some interesting information on the tax rates paid in other countries. He has a list of some of the tax rates around the world:
Australia: 17-45%
Austria: 21%-50%
Belgium: 25-50%
China: 5-45%
Denmark: 38-59%
France: 5.5-40%
Germany: 14-45%
Greece: 0-40%
Ireland: 20-41%
Israel: 10-46%
Italy: 23%-43%
Japan: 5-50%
Morocco: 0-41.5%
Netherlands: 0-52%
New Zealand: 0-39%
Norway: 28-49%
Portugal: 0-42%
Slovenia: 16%-41%
South Africa: 0-40%
Spain: 24-43%
Sweden: 0-57%
Taiwan: 6-40%
U.K.: 0-40%
Our federal tax rate of between 15% and 35% doesn’t seem so bad. Although that tax rate doesn’t take into account the other taxes we pay, such as state taxes and property taxes. Even so, compared to some countries, we probably still fall in the lower end of what we pay. But, at the same time, we are also often annoyed at how those taxes are used. Would we be happier with our taxes if we had a greater say in how they were used, and whether or not they actually benefited the people? For now, we are annoyed with taxes because we see pork barrel projects and massive amounts of waste.
I wouldn’t mind paying taxes so much, I think, if they actually went toward accomplishing good, rather than being wasted on mostly useless stuff. But that would require such a monumental change to the way we do things, that it doesn’t seem very likely.
Image source: blmurch via Flickr
There are very few angels in government who know how to spend your money better than you do, if they exist at all.
If you want to do good, donate your time and money to the charity of your choice, and fight to keep your taxes low and government spending in check. That’s my advice. Government has an unquenchable appetite for other people’s money.