Discussion about US taxation often omit: - the state & local taxes (can be as high as 12-15%) - social security (6.2%, tapers off after 150k) - medicare (2%

Discussion about US taxation often omit: - the state & local taxes (can be as high as 12-15%) - social security (6.2%, tapers off after 150k) - medicare (2% generally) - net investment income tax (3.8%) - different tax treatments of short and long term capital gains Sure, if you just look at the federal rate, the US tax rate does seem a lot lower... VAT are generally higher in Europe though. Even in the "high sales tax" areas in the US, you'd typically get ~10% compared with 22% in Europe.