4 ms·

It's really hard to generalize European countries. For example, it's possibly to pay ~20% tax rate in Germany (after tax credits due to Kids) after having gone

It's really hard to generalize European countries. For example, it's possibly to pay ~20% tax rate in Germany (after tax credits due to Kids) after having gone through free university with free healthcare. And then you have Sweden with 70%

SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
I am not sure it balances out, but for that increased tax rate Sweden does have some really nice incentives to have kids, including 3 months of mandatory paid paternal AND maternal parental leave, for 6 months total (with the additional option of taking a full year at a reduced rate, something like 50%). Does Germany also have similar incentives? Some cursory googling says not as good. It kind of sucks in Sweden to not be able to take advantage of that if you aren't planning to have kids though. I also don't think besides what I have mentioned above that you factor in the tax breaks that Swedes get for having kids. It's probably not as much as the 20% number you are quoting for germany but a dual-income household (Nordic countries and Denmark and Sweden in particular really favor both parents working in taxes for some reason) with kids probably does not approach the 70% number you quoted, even in the upper echelon (and to hit that 70% number you really do have to make upwards of $100k equivalent in Sweden, which is quite a high salary by Swedish standards). To put it into perspective, at a good paying software dev company the junior devs make between $35-50k equivalent, and the most senior 10-year-or-more experience devs in Sweden are making about $90-100k equivalent. Even though stuff in Sweden is expensive, the social net is pretty strong, so plenty of people can easily survive on $40-50k before taxes because of the free education, healthcare, etc. mentioned before.
beerlord 8y ago
You havn't considered payroll taxes. The Scandinavians have smartly replaced payroll taxes with income taxes, whereas in Germany your employer pays 20% for every dollar they pay you. http://www.uhy.com/employers-now-pay-average-employment-costs-worth-nearly-25-of-employees-salaries/ http://www.uhy.com/employers-now-pay-average-employment-cost...
- someguydave 8y ago
  It would be even smarter to tax consumption and not income or investment

SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago

I am not sure it balances out, but for that increased tax rate Sweden does have some really nice incentives to have kids, including 3 months of mandatory paid paternal AND maternal parental leave, for 6 months total (with the additional option of taking a full year at a reduced rate, something like 50%). Does Germany also have similar incentives? Some cursory googling says not as good. It kind of sucks in Sweden to not be able to take advantage of that if you aren't planning to have kids though. I also don't think besides what I have mentioned above that you factor in the tax breaks that Swedes get for having kids. It's probably not as much as the 20% number you are quoting for germany but a dual-income household (Nordic countries and Denmark and Sweden in particular really favor both parents working in taxes for some reason) with kids probably does not approach the 70% number you quoted, even in the upper echelon (and to hit that 70% number you really do have to make upwards of $100k equivalent in Sweden, which is quite a high salary by Swedish standards). To put it into perspective, at a good paying software dev company the junior devs make between $35-50k equivalent, and the most senior 10-year-or-more experience devs in Sweden are making about $90-100k equivalent. Even though stuff in Sweden is expensive, the social net is pretty strong, so plenty of people can easily survive on $40-50k before taxes because of the free education, healthcare, etc. mentioned before.

beerlord 8y ago

You havn't considered payroll taxes. The Scandinavians have smartly replaced payroll taxes with income taxes, whereas in Germany your employer pays 20% for every dollar they pay you. http://www.uhy.com/employers-now-pay-average-employment-costs-worth-nearly-25-of-employees-salaries/ http://www.uhy.com/employers-now-pay-average-employment-cost...

someguydave 8y ago
It would be even smarter to tax consumption and not income or investment