It's not that easy to calculate (and most French people probably don't even know), because it's quite obfuscated... For healthcare, retirement, various helps f

It's not that easy to calculate (and most French people probably don't even know), because it's quite obfuscated... For healthcare, retirement, various helps for unemployed people and other social benefits, companies are paying roughly the equivalent of your net income directly to the state. The so called "charges". Then according to your revenues you will pay between 0 and 50% of your net income in tax (it's maxed out to 50%). For your average software engineer with a master degree, probably around 30%. So that's a total of 65%. Hardly ever less than 50%, and hardly ever more than 75%. Now the real obfuscation comes from the so-called "charges". They are payed by companies so some people consider them part of company tax. I don't, because "charges" are tied to an employee... fire him/her and you won't have to pay them. The double obfuscation on "charges" is that only a part of them is showed on the payroll... so most people tend to see them as lower than they actually are. And then the VTA is 19.6%... So yes, French people pay an incredible amount of tax. And wages are not even high to begin with (much lower than in the United States, at least NYC where I used to be working). Then again, nearly free education and nearly free healthcare is nice too... the "Grande Ecole" I went to, top tier, was 800 euros a year. Books and all materials included in the price. Definitely affordable.