Income Tax rate comparison around the world
 

For now, US doesn't seem to have it too bad compared to other countries around the world.

A few surprising facts. France, Germany and Belgium may as well be called communist countries. Income tax rate of roughly 50%~55%. That's beyond the limit to what can be called socialism, IMO. Russia (though not on the table) has 13% rate of income tax (found it out on wikipedia). Irony!~:bustingup Now who can say Russia is against capitalism!

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P148855.asp

Where did you get these numbers from? :confused: I had been living 38 years in France before coming to the USA and never had been taxed that much. My income tax at the time was around 35% at the time which I found already too high. The income tax in France varies based on the amount of income but only 1 or 2% of the population are in the 45% tax bracket. The problem in France is that there are many other indirect taxes. Sales taxes (VAT) for example is over 20%. However once you have paid your taxes school (which includes pre-school, school and college) as well as health is basically free. You do not have to be concerned about saving money to send the kids to college or be concerned about not being able to pay your medical bills.

The table is ok, but barely, imo...
and it does not take into account FICA, medicare supp tax,
AMT tax, state income taxes, county taxes, ad valorem taxes, sales taxes,
phone and utility taxes, real estate taxes, and some I probably left out.

Very hard to compare apples to apples, imo. I am not suggesting
we/The US, are taxed more or less our share, than other countries
but in some of those higher tax countries health care, elderly care,
etc., is all covered via those higher rates.

And, the idiots in Wash.DC will spend 10-20% more than all of us
"send" them anyway...not even considering the TARP/Bailout Trillions.
BR,mD

11.8% for Families? We NEED to jack up those tax rates. It should be 5% less at best! I Like the UK version

The source is given right above the attachment.

It's a comparison of taxes paid by a household earning the country's average wage.

Its easy for you to say that considering.. well you know why. Either way the comparison is not exactly apples to apples. Take in consideration the size of the populations in each country.

True. It's not apples to apples but still gives a general idea of how they compare. For example, I heard before that France and Germany had a hefty tax burden and it shows here.

IMO you have absolutely no clue what communism or socialism is.

In communist countries, there is no income tax. Income tax is a capitalist idea. In communist countries, government revenue comes from the profits earned by nationalized corporations.

For example, in the United States, the Post Office is nationalized. So when the Post Office makes a profit (which it does most years), that revenue goes to the Federal Government. Now imagine if the oil industry, steel industry, telecommunications, etc. were all nationalized. That is how it is in communist countries, and that is how the government gets its revenue -- not from income tax.

Here is an example:

http://www.reuters.com/article/bonds...30837320080131

HAVANA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Cubans working for foreign companies and embassies are expressing anger at a recent government decision to make them pay income tax on their hard currency bonuses. After four decades of tax-free communist rule, the prospect comes as shock. Since 1996, only artists, writers and self-employed Cubans have paid income tax.



Cuba is starting to move towards capitalism by allowing foreign companies to operate there, so they started an income tax to go along with it, just like all the other capistalist countries.



Another interesting sentence in your article is this:

"but in most of those countries families get added social services, such as secure pensions and health care. "

Add your taxes to what you (or your employer) pay for your family's health care and what you (or your employer) pay into your pension plan or 401k, and I bet your rates will be even higher than those countries.

These numbers are not accurate for France, I can tell you that.

Very funny...

I'm sorry but those differences between the single and married is not right. If we need to close this tax hole I say that we raise taxes on families to 20% at least then they are not so out of whack

I also like Mexico's version. Why should married families with kids get all the breaks? I say they shouldn't!

The UK, Canada, France and Mexico are all where it should be.

I'm going to stop paying half my taxes....

As in only the average Federal/Country income tax, as I railed about
in my earlier post...an almost inane "chart" of "data", imo.

I agree that you can't compare unless you have data on the total taxes paid (not just income tax), and you further have data on what services the people get in return from the government.

Hey don't get me wrong, I've been single up until a few years ago and felt the way you did. Even now wife doesn't work (Stay at home mom). When I claimed my son last year, for the first time I got a fat rebate. I agree the differences is not right but it is what it is. Raising taxes on families is a political no no.

It's not like you get taxed less as, you just get a child credit. The difference is that one's expenses increase quite a bit once you have a kid.

The only "Fair" way to fill the gap is to increase Sales tax in each state, and create a federal sales tax. At least that is my opinion.

I'll keep it short and sweet, I'm in a 36% tax bracket..soon to be 39% if Obama gets his "original" way. Not sure what the goofy chart was trying to show :rofl:

If you want to compare taxes systems in different countries you have to really understand what it really covers. In a some European countries like France and Germany for examples taxes covers many things including education (from pre-school to college), health care, retirement, etc.... So if you were adding that type of expenses is to the taxes that we pay in the USA we would have a much higher % than the one shown in this chart. Taxes systems are very different and trying to compare then with such a chart is totally useless and brings confusion more than anything else.

Semi-funny story, I pull up in my X and this random guy tells me to "enjoy it while you can, Obama is going to redistribute your wealth"

:rofl: Where did you get the picture of SJ?

Mathematically explained:
Having kids is expensive
=> We need more money to raise our kids
=> Tax breaks
Or if
You need more money
=> You need tax breaks
=> Have some kids

I can't reveal my sources :)

So you get tax breaks because you need more money? Sounds like "wealth redistribution" or socialism to me. ;)

I thought the idea of capitalism was that you get money based on how hard you work and not based on what you need.

Isn't this why people voted for Obama and not for McCain?

Obviously. But don't criticize socialism but then argue that the tax code which allows you to have a bigger tax break is fair because you need the money more than some other guy.

I've noticed that about most people who post anti-socialist retoric on this board. They love socialism when it benefits them, although in those cases they rarely even recognize that it's socialism. They only complain about socialism when they don't share in the benefits.

Oh..you mean the money YOU worked for :rofl:

Very simply:

If you make $$$$ you get to keep .60 of every 1.00
If you make $$ you get to keep .70 of every 1.00

Moral of the story, do just enough to get by but don't do "really" well or we'll take more of your money. Buy hey, you're making more..so overall you're still getting more :rofl:

Yeah..that seems fair :rofl:

And if you make $$ and you have 2 kids, you get to keep .80 out of every 1.00

And if you are a business owner and you take your $$ in capital gains, you get to keep .85 out of every 1.00.

Or better yet, if you are a business owner and you make $ (you really make $$$, but you write off many of your personal expenses as business expenses), then you get to keep more than .90 of every 1.00. :thumbup:



The more important question, is what services do you get in return for the .10 - .30 of every dollar you pay the government?

No the important question is the fact that you just underlined what I said. If you make $ you get to keep MORE than if you make $$. And that folks, is BS.

Think of it this way, if you're a C student and your friend is an A student..should you both get B's??? :rofl:

Taxing people on their income (or spending) is what is BS.

Hmmmmmmmmm. OK :confused:

BTW, in your analogy here, the way it should work is that the C student should be given after-school tutoring, and then both students will end up with an A. :D

Except, you would probably complain that you don't want your taxes paying for the after-school tutoring since maybe your kid is the "A" student and doesn't need the tutoring.

I didn't play football in high school. Maybe my parents should have complained about their taxes going to fund high school football -- another form of wealth redistribution. Maybe only parents of football players should pay for the funding for the football team. Otherwise, it's BS, right?

And maybe someone who takes the train to work and doesn't drive should complain about their taxes going to pay for road repairs.

The examples of "wealth redistribution" in our current system go far beyond tax rates.

Woohoo watch the circles...watch em :rofl: :nanana:

This is really funny, you don't have an argument at all. I'm not even sure what your point is any more. :yikes:

The only complaining should be your employees about their lack of health care :rofl: :stickpoke

The tax system explained
 

sooo true

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. 'Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.
But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so,
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'
'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too.
It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'
'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!' 'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!' The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The
next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics

If you think that distribution is unequal, you should check out the similar analogy for wealth distribution in the United States. It looks something like this:

Suppose that we had 100 men and and a total of $100 of wealth between them.

40 of the men would have $0.005 each (half of a penny)

20 of the men would have $0.23 each

20 of the men would have $0.60 each

10 of the men would have $1.25 each

5 of the men would have $2.30 each

4 of the men would have $5.20 each

and 1 man would have $38.40




As I said before, don't tax income. Tax wealth, and have everyone pay the exact same percentage, i.e. a "flat tax"

"As I said before, don't tax income. Tax wealth, and have everyone pay the exact same percentage, i.e. a "flat tax""

Agree with that...but income will always be taxed here

Our country has been around for 230 years. We've only taxed income for 95 years. But we've taxed property for the entire time. However, in recent years there has been a trend to move away from both property and income tax towards sales based taxes which are regressive. It is no surprise that the intended result of that change has occured which is that the wealthy have gotten wealthier while the middle & lower classes have become poorer. That trend will continue until there is no more middle class, or unless the tax structure is changed to increase the burdon on the wealthy and lower the burden on the poor and middle class.

And if the burden is shifted further away from the wealthy, as many in this thread suggest that they want, we will end up like Mexico where 1% of the population controls 99% of the wealth and everyone else is poor. It will take a few years, but we are surely headed in that direction.

And then MEXICO will be the one building up a bigger wall to keep Americans from crossing over :bustingup

Best example ever......... I agree.
The solution: GET THE FIRST FOUR TO STOP DRINKING BEER AND DRINK WATER. Stop complaining that you are losing your home if you couldn't afford it in the first place. Live within your means people!!!!!!!!!.
Thats why I drive an X5 instead of a ferrari.