5 ms·

It still boggles my mind that it's not obvious how much of my tax bill go to the EU. This aids in the feeling of detachment.

unilynx 2y ago
With the EU having a total €150B budget in a €19.350B GDP economy it's probably still noise in your total taxes.
- scoot 2y ago
  I can't help thinking that you must have the decimal point in the wrong place...
  - pasc1878 2y ago
    Or else they are European and use . as the thousands separator.
    - scoot 2y ago
      I wondered if that might be the case, but they're writing in English which use a comma as a thousands separator; in which case, they definitely have the decimal point in the wrong place, even if it's down to a grammatical error.
      - pasc1878 2y ago
        I see many Europeans write in English but still use European number formatting - they are sort of different things.
        scoot 2y ago
        I'm not so sure they're separate, or at least that they should be treated as such. Either way, it's a shame that this isn't standardised, regardless of the language spoken. Likewise units of measurement (weight, distance, time etc.).
        wongarsu 2y ago
        Windows treats them as separate settings. I can set my language, and separately I can set my regional format which encompasses things like which decimal symbol and which thousands separator to use (both offer the comma, the dot and '), how dates are written, which day is the first of the week, how time is written (12/24h), whether to use Arabian numbers or one of the other digit-based systems, which unit system to use (US or metric) etc. > it's a shame that this isn't standardised It kind of is: The International Bureau of Weights and Measures has maintained since 1948 that you shouldn't use dots or commas as thousands separators. ISO 31-0 prescribes the use of small spaces, and so do various other American and international standards organizations. It's just that this is widely ignored.
        scoot 2y ago
        Interesting in both cases. Thanks for sharing!
        raxxorraxor 2y ago
        > it's a shame that this isn't standardised Let me tell you about the pain of CSV-files that use ; as a delimiter because otherwise you couldn't use decimal numbers. Or in office documents where MS "translates" commas. That means you also need to replace all , and ; if you translate office scripts from English to a language with other decimal rules. Nevermind the parsing of numbers in general... That stuff can crashes moon probes.
    - fossislife 2y ago
      Just had a look: 25 of EU countries use ".", and 2 (Malta and Ireland) use ","
      - caddy 2y ago
        In school (UK) we were told to use ' as the thousands separator in mathematics as it avoids confusion i.e. 1'234.56 1'234,56 Either of these can be understood no matter which format you're used to. Although, I don't think it's ever caught on really (or whether it's even advisable/sensible).
        pasc1878 2y ago
        When was this?
        caddy 2y ago
        ~2015
  - plantain 2y ago
    That's how it's done in Europe. . not ,
wongarsu 2y ago
Does this chart [1] for contributions and this [2] for net contributions (direct financial contributions minus direct financial benefits) not answer that question? Then just figure out which portion of your countries budget comes out of your taxes, and how big the total budget of your country is, and you have your answer. It's not like this is top secret information 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/316691/eu-budget-contributions-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/316691/eu-budget-contrib... 2: https://www.statista.com/chart/18794/net-contributors-to-eu-budget/ https://www.statista.com/chart/18794/net-contributors-to-eu-...
- KingOfCoders 2y ago
  It's more like "I can't be bothered to look, but I can be bothered to complain".
disgruntledphd2 2y ago
Basically nothing. They get 1% of VAT which is mostly spent on poor regions (cohesion funding) and agricultural subsidies (Common Agricultural Policy).

unilynx 2y ago

With the EU having a total €150B budget in a €19.350B GDP economy it's probably still noise in your total taxes.

scoot 2y ago
I can't help thinking that you must have the decimal point in the wrong place...
- pasc1878 2y ago
  Or else they are European and use . as the thousands separator.
  - scoot 2y ago
    I wondered if that might be the case, but they're writing in English which use a comma as a thousands separator; in which case, they definitely have the decimal point in the wrong place, even if it's down to a grammatical error.
    - pasc1878 2y ago
      I see many Europeans write in English but still use European number formatting - they are sort of different things.
      - scoot 2y ago
        I'm not so sure they're separate, or at least that they should be treated as such. Either way, it's a shame that this isn't standardised, regardless of the language spoken. Likewise units of measurement (weight, distance, time etc.).
        wongarsu 2y ago
        Windows treats them as separate settings. I can set my language, and separately I can set my regional format which encompasses things like which decimal symbol and which thousands separator to use (both offer the comma, the dot and '), how dates are written, which day is the first of the week, how time is written (12/24h), whether to use Arabian numbers or one of the other digit-based systems, which unit system to use (US or metric) etc. > it's a shame that this isn't standardised It kind of is: The International Bureau of Weights and Measures has maintained since 1948 that you shouldn't use dots or commas as thousands separators. ISO 31-0 prescribes the use of small spaces, and so do various other American and international standards organizations. It's just that this is widely ignored.
        scoot 2y ago
        Interesting in both cases. Thanks for sharing!
        raxxorraxor 2y ago
        > it's a shame that this isn't standardised Let me tell you about the pain of CSV-files that use ; as a delimiter because otherwise you couldn't use decimal numbers. Or in office documents where MS "translates" commas. That means you also need to replace all , and ; if you translate office scripts from English to a language with other decimal rules. Nevermind the parsing of numbers in general... That stuff can crashes moon probes.
  - fossislife 2y ago
    Just had a look: 25 of EU countries use ".", and 2 (Malta and Ireland) use ","
    - caddy 2y ago
      In school (UK) we were told to use ' as the thousands separator in mathematics as it avoids confusion i.e. 1'234.56 1'234,56 Either of these can be understood no matter which format you're used to. Although, I don't think it's ever caught on really (or whether it's even advisable/sensible).
      - pasc1878 2y ago
        When was this?
        caddy 2y ago
        ~2015
- plantain 2y ago
  That's how it's done in Europe. . not ,

wongarsu 2y ago

Does this chart [1] for contributions and this [2] for net contributions (direct financial contributions minus direct financial benefits) not answer that question? Then just figure out which portion of your countries budget comes out of your taxes, and how big the total budget of your country is, and you have your answer. It's not like this is top secret information 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/316691/eu-budget-contributions-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/316691/eu-budget-contrib... 2: https://www.statista.com/chart/18794/net-contributors-to-eu-budget/ https://www.statista.com/chart/18794/net-contributors-to-eu-...

KingOfCoders 2y ago
It's more like "I can't be bothered to look, but I can be bothered to complain".

disgruntledphd2 2y ago

Basically nothing. They get 1% of VAT which is mostly spent on poor regions (cohesion funding) and agricultural subsidies (Common Agricultural Policy).