I am among the first to complain about taxes, especially income taxes and especially when the government seems to have not control on spending (and wastes money like it's nothing). Then I found this article from Money Central that highlights the fact that U.S. tax burdens are better than those in most countries. Some facts:
“When you look at the overall tax burden, the U.S. is quite low," said Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., and former director of the office of research for the Internal Revenue Service.
For a family with one wage-earner and two children, only Iceland and Ireland have a lower income tax burden than the U.S., according to the most recent data for 2005.
At the top, Sweden, Turkey, France and Poland impose the biggest tax burdens on families, but in most of those countries families get added social services, such as secure pensions and health care.
“Citizens in these other countries are paying more money, but they are getting more back, in terms of social programs,” said Christopher Heady, head of tax policy for the Paris-based think tank Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. “It’s a choice the electorate makes.”
Ok, they pay more but they get "more." Yeah, right. I'd rather keep as much as possible and trust myself to manage it rather than hand it over to a big bureaucracy.
The piece then lists tax burden rates from 30 countries. Here's what the top and bottom ones have as tax rates for a married couple with two kids compared to the U.S.:
- Turkey 42.7%
- Sweden 42.4%
- Poland 42.1%
- France 41.7%
- United States 11.9%
- Iceland 11.0%
- Ireland 8.1%
The article ends by highlighting some wacky taxes from various states. Click on through to it if you want a chuckle.
Even though our tax rates are low compared to others, there's still lots of room for improvement (note the government over-spending and waste above). Here are some additional Free Money Finance posts on the subject in case you'd like more information:
Comments