"In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."-Benjamin Franklin
April 14th is an important date for Americans because we have to file our taxes. Most people loathe April 14th, but I actually look forward to it. Yes. I enjoy doing my taxes and reading the copious IRS publications and forms. =) What's not to like?
How much do Americans pay? About 30%!
This is actually below the OECD average of 37%. lol
For some reason, Americans and Canadians think Canada is a high tax country. This is simply not true. Canadians pay around 31%. By the way, Korea is a low tax country, only 17%.
Here are some tax statistics from the OECD 2007 Factbook:
"Taxes on the Average Worker"
| 1998 | 2005 | |
| Australia | 30.2 | 28.3 |
| Austria | 45.8 | 47.4 |
| Belgium | 56.8 | 55.4 |
| Canada | 31.7 | 31.6 |
| Czech Republic | 42.8 | 43.8 |
| Denmark | 43.7 | 41.4 |
| Finland | 48.8 | 44.6 |
| France | 47.6 | 50.1 |
| Germany | 52.2 | 51.8 |
| Greece | 36.1 | 38.8 |
| Hungary | 51.6 | 50.5 |
| Iceland | 25.9 | 29 |
| Ireland | 33 | 25.7 |
| Italy | 47.5 | 45.4 |
| Japan | 19.6 | 27.7 |
| Korea | 14.7 | 17.3 |
| Luxembourg | 33.8 | 35.3 |
| Mexico | 21.9 | 18.2 |
| Netherlands | 43.5 | 38.6 |
| New Zealand | 20 | 20.5 |
| Norway | 37.5 | 37.3 |
| Poland | 43.2 | 43.6 |
| Portugal | 33.8 | 36.2 |
| Slovak Republic | .. | 38.3 |
| Spain | 39 | 39 |
| Sweden | 50.7 | 47.9 |
| Switzerland | 30 | 29.5 |
| Turkey | 39.8 | 42.7 |
| United Kingdom | 32 | 33.5 |
| United States | 31 | 29.1 |
| EU15 average | 43 | 42.1 |
| OECD average | 37.2 | 37.3 |
3 comments:
Do you pay the same tax as Korean?
(8%, 17%, 26%, 35% progressive tax rates on salaries)
Korea has a tax treaty with the U.S. since 1976. So, I pay a slightly reduced tax rate in Korea.
It's really interesting to me that Korea has a quite lower average tax rate than other countries although we spend a lot for the military. I think a lot of Koreans should know that, and think about the trade-off before they vote.
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