You can't just compare the after-net salary income tax when you compare countries. How would you then compare a country with high income tax but low VAT? You ne

You can't just compare the after-net salary income tax when you compare countries. How would you then compare a country with high income tax but low VAT? You need to take the whole cycle. As a software programmer, I receive money from people I sell the software to, pay VAT, pay social charges, pay income tax and I'm left with 37% of the money given by the clients, even though I have a very lean company (no office, no advertising costs in this calculation, no cloud costs, etc). That makes 63% of my revenue taken by the government. What did you mean with "pure and utter nonsense", apart from not wanting to acknowledge the tax pressure in France because you've never created a company and, therefore, don't know what you are talking about? How is creating a company "disinginuous because your tax situation is complicated"? What about we make it simple so we can focus on delivering a product for the customers (like, doing our job)? As said, I don't even mind the 63%, even though it's impoverishing everyone. I mind the paperwork.