Benjamin
Franklin famously said that in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and
taxes. Of course while true, its not an absolute. In Pakistan and Greece for example, many avoid paying any taxes at all, but that's another story.
So the only variable in the equation for most of us is exactly how much are we taxed. Now I don't know about you, but I had vaguely assumed that all western democracies would generally pay similar amounts as the cost of running a state would be roughly equivalent ... but in fact there are big differences (health care, private or public provision, is a big factor but there are other factors).
I came across this illustration of what we all pay or don't pay (depending upon your view point) ....
Its striking that the UK is heavily taxed at both the lower and higher ends of the salary rates .... Russia on the other hand is hardly taxed. With the exception of the oil states such as Dubai, the provision of good public services seems to be the key to the rates, but it does make you question why you are taxed so much, when you see that countries such as Japan are being taxed less than us.
So the only variable in the equation for most of us is exactly how much are we taxed. Now I don't know about you, but I had vaguely assumed that all western democracies would generally pay similar amounts as the cost of running a state would be roughly equivalent ... but in fact there are big differences (health care, private or public provision, is a big factor but there are other factors).
I came across this illustration of what we all pay or don't pay (depending upon your view point) ....
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| Death And Taxes - How Much Do You Pay? |
Its striking that the UK is heavily taxed at both the lower and higher ends of the salary rates .... Russia on the other hand is hardly taxed. With the exception of the oil states such as Dubai, the provision of good public services seems to be the key to the rates, but it does make you question why you are taxed so much, when you see that countries such as Japan are being taxed less than us.
I blame waste and incompetence for high taxes (not to mention corruption). I just heard that Royal Mail is to be sold-off after we (the tax payers) picked up the £10billion pound bill for the pension fund. I'm in favour of well run nationalised industries making money for the country, but governments are notoriously bad at this.
ReplyDeleteAlso selling off the good bits and keeping the bad bits as public liabilities seems criminal .... see sale of the banks for same thing.
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