America has the highest taxes in the world!

Honestly, these tax statistics are pretty much useless because they don't actually tell you anything meaningful about how the system works. In our neck of the woods, some taxes are incredibly high, yet we hold European records for having almost zero tax in other areas, like property or capital gains. Ideally, the tax burden should shift away from labor and development toward non-productive goods. As for Sales Tax, I think it should be restructured roughly like this:
5% for growth sectors (books, education, machinery/equipment, child allowances, solar panels...)
19% for food and specific local products (construction services, dining, tourism...)
23% for mostly imported essentials (clothing, footwear, certain household items...)
27% for imported non-essentials that aren't even produced here in the States (cars, consumer electronics...)

This approach would encourage innovation, lower the cost of basic groceries, provide at least a small incentive to buy locally made goods, and discourage money leaking out of the country on things we don't even manufacture ourselves. We’d need to run the numbers to see how much this would hit the budget, and if it's not totally feasible, we could tweak the percentages—as long as we don't lose the core concept.

@northernmarlin2, which group are you even putting computers in—that 5% bracket or the 27% one? I mean, they could honestly fit into either category at the same time. 🙄

btw, I think the lowest allowed rate in the EU is 8%, and it can't go any lower than that.

Ashley Ramirez4 said:@northernmarlin2, which group are you even putting computers in—that 5% bracket or the 27% one? I mean, they could honestly fit into either category at the same time. 🙄

btw, I think the lowest allowed rate in the EU is 8%, and it can't go any lower than that.

Honestly, we should just take a page out of America's book. They don't bother with Sales Tax and such, but if we go down that road, we’d better be prepared to implement a property tax to make up the difference.

Anthony Wood11 said:Honestly, we should just take a page out of America's book. They don't bother with Sales Tax and such, but if we go down that road, we’d better be prepared to implement a property tax to make up the difference.

It isn't quite like that—they don't have Sales Tax at the federal level, but they certainly have it at the state level.

Furthermore, if our goal is to remain integrated within the EU, maintaining a system comparable to Sales Tax is essentially non-negotiable.

casuallynx8 said:It isn't quite like that—they don't have Sales Tax at the federal level, but they certainly have it at the state level.

Furthermore, if our goal is to remain integrated within the EU, maintaining a system comparable to Sales Tax is essentially non-negotiable.

That’s the thing—we don't actually have to be in the EU.🙂

casuallynx8 said:It isn't quite like that—they don't have Sales Tax at the federal level, but they certainly have it at the state level.

Furthermore, if our goal is to remain integrated within the EU, maintaining a system comparable to Sales Tax is essentially non-negotiable.

And that sales tax averages out to what... maybe around 10%... a bit more here, a bit less there...🙂

Sure, you can't function without Sales Tax, but it doesn't have to be 23%.😢

Next time, before you swallow the garbage being spewed by local news outlets (or just lazy hacks rewriting foreign reports), maybe try reading the full report yourself.

http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/Issues...x-oct-2010.pdf

Our broader analysis comparing both effective income tax and social security rates on USD100,000 and USD300,000 of gross income emphasizes the point that other taxes and the impact of deductions clearly need to be considered. Effective rates were derived by taking total taxes over gross income prior to any deductions (which may include social security) to allow for better comparison as deductions can vary greatly across countries. While Sweden is clearly at the higher end of each scenario, it does not actually have the top rate. Using a USD100,000 basis for example, America, Canada and Greece All have higher combined effective rates ranging from approximately 45 to 52 percent. The primary difference here is social security.Whether social security is a true tax may be debated but in terms of cost, it can be material and should not be forgotten. We have, therefore, again included a review of both the employee and employer contributions for completeness. Social security components can vary significantly including by country, employer and employee type. For ease of comparison across countries, we have therefore again restricted the review to recognized core contribution requirements for employees earning gross income of USD100,000 and USD300,000. The results show France has the highest combined rate at approximately 60 percent under either scenario followed by Belgium at 48 percent.

Also, who knows if that number even applies to the Republic of America. $100k a year is roughly $103 gross annually, leaving you with $330 net per year. That’s about $111 a month. You can't draw any real conclusions about how the tax is distributed if your analysis only looks at the top 8.5% and ignores everyone else, especially since according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that top 8.5% of workers makes $2667 net or more. So yeah... 🙄

Ashley Ramirez4 said:@northernmarlin2, which group are you even putting computers in—that 5% bracket or the 27% one? I mean, they could honestly fit into either category at the same time. 🙄

btw, I think the lowest allowed rate in the EU is 8%, and it can't go any lower than that.

Look, I wasn't trying to present some deep, academic analysis here—mostly because I don't exactly have access to all the internal data on how sales tax is actually collected. That’s exactly why I suggested that sales tax needs to be reformed "in that direction." To me, the ultimate goal being illustrated by those examples above seems pretty straightforward.

brightlynx11 said:Next time, before you swallow the garbage being spewed by local news outlets (or just lazy hacks rewriting foreign reports), maybe try reading the full report yourself.

http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/Issues...x-oct-2010.pdf

Our broader analysis comparing both effective income tax and social security rates on USD100,000 and USD300,000 of gross income emphasizes the point that other taxes and the impact of deductions clearly need to be considered. Effective rates were derived by taking total taxes over gross income prior to any deductions (which may include social security) to allow for better comparison as deductions can vary greatly across countries. While Sweden is clearly at the higher end of each scenario, it does not actually have the top rate. Using a USD100,000 basis for example, America, Canada and Greece All have higher combined effective rates ranging from approximately 45 to 52 percent. The primary difference here is social security.Whether social security is a true tax may be debated but in terms of cost, it can be material and should not be forgotten. We have, therefore, again included a review of both the employee and employer contributions for completeness. Social security components can vary significantly including by country, employer and employee type. For ease of comparison across countries, we have therefore again restricted the review to recognized core contribution requirements for employees earning gross income of USD100,000 and USD300,000. The results show France has the highest combined rate at approximately 60 percent under either scenario followed by Belgium at 48 percent.

Also, who knows if that number even applies to the Republic of America. $100k a year is roughly $103 gross annually, leaving you with $330 net per year. That’s about $111 a month. You can't draw any real conclusions about how the tax is distributed if your analysis only looks at the top 8.5% and ignores everyone else, especially since according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that top 8.5% of workers makes $2667 net or more. So yeah... 🙄

Spot on. Lately, it feels like everyone—especially the big business lobby groups around here—is constantly complaining about high taxes. I say "complaining" because they seem to label every single tax as "too high," regardless of whether that’s actually true or not. In my opinion, we're missing the forest for the trees. Our real issues are widespread tax evasion and the fact that the tax burden isn't distributed fairly across the board. Those are the topics people rarely touch, and when they finally do, they usually just turn it into a personal grievance instead of looking at the bigger picture.

Tax evasion isn't exactly a shocker here—it’s almost expected, given how aggressively redistributive the system is in America. You've got those earning higher incomes getting hit significantly harder just to fund various transfers for people at the lower end of the spectrum.
The real issue, though, is that our tax brackets start biting way too early. In the States, you don't really feel that squeeze until you're making much more substantial money. I’d go as far as to say this setup practically invites a brain drain; once you hit those top marginal rates, even a decent engineer's salary starts looking pretty thin after the government takes its cut.

Andrew Booth29 said:Tax evasion isn't exactly a shocker here—it’s almost expected, given how aggressively redistributive the system is in America. You've got those earning higher incomes getting hit significantly harder just to fund various transfers for people at the lower end of the spectrum.
The real issue, though, is that our tax brackets start biting way too early. In the States, you don't really feel that squeeze until you're making much more substantial money. I’d go as far as to say this setup practically invites a brain drain; once you hit those top marginal rates, even a decent engineer's salary starts looking pretty thin after the government takes its cut.

It isn't "predictable" because the state is redistributive; it's happening because the system itself is broken. You can see this empirically just by looking at the current situation across Europe. Honestly, the institutions 😁 aren't functioning properly, which really benefits the very people who earn the most and find ways to dodge their taxes (and it’s quite a coincidence that it’s the same crowd sitting in the tax administration 😁).

Andrew Booth29 said:Tax evasion isn't exactly a shocker here—it’s almost expected, given how aggressively redistributive the system is in America. You've got those earning higher incomes getting hit significantly harder just to fund various transfers for people at the lower end of the spectrum.
The real issue, though, is that our tax brackets start biting way too early. In the States, you don't really feel that squeeze until you're making much more substantial money. I’d go as far as to say this setup practically invites a brain drain; once you hit those top marginal rates, even a decent engineer's salary starts looking pretty thin after the government takes its cut.

This doesn't have to do with evasion either, but it's true that the latest tax changes made things even worse. Our tax brackets are way too crowded at the lower income levels, and then suddenly—at a level that's still quite low—you hit this massive bracket that swallows everyone from the middle class to entry-level professionals in major cities. At the end of the day, the tax evasion problem in America is deeply political.

Look, even Sweden deals with its fair share of tax evasion and a sizable gray market... I actually stumbled upon this study on the subject:
http://www.nek.uu.se/Pdf/wp2006_12.pdf

It’s no secret that the government here is even more aggressive when it comes to collecting taxes—if you can even call it that. But honestly? It doesn't seem to bother people much. Most folks clearly just view themselves as the beneficiaries of the whole system.

Andrew Booth29 said:Look, even Sweden deals with its fair share of tax evasion and a sizable gray market... I actually stumbled upon this study on the subject:
http://www.nek.uu.se/Pdf/wp2006_12.pdf

It’s no secret that the government here is even more aggressive when it comes to collecting taxes—if you can even call it that. But honestly? It doesn't seem to bother people much. Most folks clearly just view themselves as the beneficiaries of the whole system.

You hit the nail on the head there. It’s already become part of the local mindset (you see similar thinking all over the North America), and people won't let go of that attitude—even when 99% of those who think they're getting a deal aren't actually seeing any benefit at all.

Next year, the United States is facing a massive wave of foreign debt repayments$11.4 billion
What’s truly depressing is where all that borrowed cash actually went. It was poured into highway construction projects, luxury apartment complexes, and those consumer loans people took out just to afford a car or a house. You see the same pattern with federal and local government spending—a huge chunk of it basically vanished into administrative overhead, salaries, pensions, and social programs. Now, we’re staring down a bill where we have to pay over a billion dollars just in interest on all that borrowed money. Foreign creditors are getting nervous about whether the U.S. can actually stay current on its payments. This debt will eventually be paid back by draining future savings, which means there will be significantly less money left for actual investments down the road. To keep things looking stable, those foreign lenders are breathing down our necks to ramp up foreign exchange reserves.

"economics for dummies" by Ivan Šuker

debt isn't really debt
a loan isn't really a loan
taxes aren't even taxes
.
.
.

There’s still one tax we haven't managed to dodge yet🙂

Anyway, congrats to everyone over in Cleveland
http://www.seebiz.eu/hr/makroekonomi...3f,100507.html

wearytrucker22 said:Denmark hits cars with excise taxes of about 200%. Honestly, let Jadranka Kosor just go ahead and slap a 300% tax on new cars, then drop income tax to 15%, corporate tax to 15%, and Sales Tax to 15%.

That’s the whole damn point right there—tax the luxury stuff and make sure an average life is actually affordable.

wearytrucker22 said:Denmark hits cars with excise taxes of about 200%. Honestly, let Jadranka Kosor just go ahead and slap a 300% tax on new cars, then drop income tax to 15%, corporate tax to 15%, and Sales Tax to 15%.

Signature. We don't even have our own auto industry, so why not?

Honestly, the taxes on cars are already getting out of hand. Comparing our situation to places like Norway, where they basically have to spend a fortune just to clear snow off the roads three times a year, just doesn't make sense. A car isn't just some luxury item you buy for fun.
We need more efficient public companies, less red tape, and a judicial system that actually works.
Right now, we've got these massive bottlenecks choking the economy and stalling the private sector—and that's exactly the group that needs to be fueling the budget.
If we want to fix this, we should fund these reforms by taking on more debt or selling off state assets, then focus on gradually cutting taxes across the board.

brightlynx11 said:Next time, before you swallow the garbage being spewed by local news outlets (or just lazy hacks rewriting foreign reports), maybe try reading the full report yourself.

http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/Issues...x-oct-2010.pdf

Our broader analysis comparing both effective income tax and social security rates on USD100,000 and USD300,000 of gross income emphasizes the point that other taxes and the impact of deductions clearly need to be considered. Effective rates were derived by taking total taxes over gross income prior to any deductions (which may include social security) to allow for better comparison as deductions can vary greatly across countries. While Sweden is clearly at the higher end of each scenario, it does not actually have the top rate. Using a USD100,000 basis for example, America, Canada and Greece All have higher combined effective rates ranging from approximately 45 to 52 percent. The primary difference here is social security.Whether social security is a true tax may be debated but in terms of cost, it can be material and should not be forgotten. We have, therefore, again included a review of both the employee and employer contributions for completeness. Social security components can vary significantly including by country, employer and employee type. For ease of comparison across countries, we have therefore again restricted the review to recognized core contribution requirements for employees earning gross income of USD100,000 and USD300,000. The results show France has the highest combined rate at approximately 60 percent under either scenario followed by Belgium at 48 percent.

Also, who knows if that number even applies to the Republic of America. $100k a year is roughly $103 gross annually, leaving you with $330 net per year. That’s about $111 a month. You can't draw any real conclusions about how the tax is distributed if your analysis only looks at the top 8.5% and ignores everyone else, especially since according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that top 8.5% of workers makes $2667 net or more. So yeah... 🙄

Yeah, right. Like our Republican Party gave us the lowest taxes ever, give me a break.

ruggeddriver70 said:There’s still one tax we haven't managed to dodge yet🙂

Anyway, congrats to everyone over in Cleveland
http://www.seebiz.eu/hr/makroekonomi...3f,100507.html

So far, the budget cuts haven't been huge. I'm curious how much they'll actually trim spending, or if there's some new arena or pool on the horizon...🙄