So arrogant to suggest I am uneducated because my opinion is different to yours, the tax as a % of GDP is shockingly differently between other countries like AUS, USA and the UK.
We pay 32% basic rate income tax, 20% VAT, 13% payroll tax and then 19% corporation tax.
Not to mention capital gains tax, stamp duty, and the myriad of other unnecessarily complex and fragmented taxes.
Im sorry if my post was upsetting, that wasn’t the intention.
No the difference is you have an opinion that takes in this country are high, I stated something factual (the U.K. tax burden isn’t high compared to the rest of the world and Europe in particular).
You’ve picked two countries with relatively low tax rates to make a point but that don’t makes the U.K. high compared to the rest of the world and in particular Europe. Only a handful of ‘developed’ counties have a tax burden as low as them, they often come with significant drawbacks.
For example, you may have lower taxes in the USA but you also have to pay through the nose for healthcare (or just don’t get any, or become ill once and it bankrupts you) and the regulatory burden is also very low, e.g. employees have very little rights or protections. What’s also amusing is that the tanks complain about high taxes, try and square that circle...
I never said the U.K. was the lowest but we are nothing like the highest either and when you compare to other countries in Europe who all pretty much follow the same rule book we are one of THE lowest and are the lowest of the ‘big players’ in Europe. Ireland is the only outlier but it’s a relatively small country, most are similar or higher, like I said we are very much middle of the road these days, if anything we are in the lower half of the table.
All of the ‘core’ eu counties have a higher tax burden (Spain, Germany, Italy and France with France and Italy having a at least 10% on the U.K. If ours is abhorrent, what is there’s?
Similar taxes to those you have listed exist elsewhere so I’m not sure what the point is.