Talk:Tax rates around the world

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[edit] Graduate rate

Dear collegues! If I understand this "graduate rate" thing right (I'm not a native speaker and, surely, no economist, either :)), it appears that you are trying to blend corporate AND individual income taxes together. Don't you think this is a bit confusing and still doesn't really say how much taxes exactly people (or corporations) pay around the world? How about we create separate lists within this article for corporate income taxes, individual income taxes and other taxes? What do you think? KNewman 14:01, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

At least in the U.S. the graduated bit means that people with different incomes pay different rate. It has nothing to do with businesses. Rmhermen 21:05, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

There are some discrepancies here. For all the graduated rates, some are quoting the lowest rate as the tax on the very first dollar (usualy 0%) and some on the first taxable dollar. For example Canada is given as 16%, when in fact the first dollar you earn is taxed at 0%, same as most places. Can we agree to either a) quote the rate for the lowest taxable dollar - this would probably be more useful since almost everywhere has a 0% tax bracket - or b) put 0% as the lowest rate for everywhere that has a tax-free allowance. DJ Clayworth 19:54, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Can we either: change this to Income tax rates around the world, or include other taxes? It is quite misleading as it is, even if factually acurate.

[edit] Comments on rates in Saudi Arabia and Australia

BTW the individial tax rate in Saudi Arabia is currently 0% not 20%.

Individual income tax in Australia is 0-45% source Australian Tax office (http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=5053&mfp=001) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.30.161.222 (talk) 08:16, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks - I've made the adjustment, although I did not put Saudi Arabia at 0%. I listed the 2.5% Zakat. The 20% was for non-residents, so I clarified that. Morphh (talk) 14:59, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Capital gains tax

Needs a column for Capital gains tax.


Hello... I have changed the corporate tax for Denmark, as it from 2005 is 28%, not 30%. I'll see if there is other places too, where it needs to be changed. http://www.tax.dk/artikler/selskabsskat.htm --62.107.138.48 18:09, 24 January 2007 (UTC)Liv, Denmark

Isn't United States 35% and changing to 30.5% as part of the Tax Reduction Act of 2007? The corporate rate in this article is 39.3% for the United States. Netdragon (talk) 21:09, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Dear Netdragon: As of now, the tax rate is not changing to 30.5%. The "Tax Reduction Act of 2007" to which you refer has not been enacted into law -- at least not yet. It's just a proposal: House of Representatives bill 3970 (H.R. 3970). The only major action on this bill was in October 2007, when it was referred to committee. See [1] as of 27 Dec. 2007. To be law, it would have to be passed by both houses of Congress and sent to the President, etc. This bill hasn't even been voted on yet. Yours, Famspear (talk) 02:37, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Payroll taxes

A column for payroll taxes should also be added. In some countries this tax is very significant. For example, Sweden has a payroll tax of 43%+ depending on income. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.89.80.119 (talk) 20:17, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree. I have been looking for payroll tax rates and caps in various countries, along with any varitions for self-employed individuals. However, unfortunately it seems that it can be quite hard to find for some reason

[edit] Contradictions in the list with other articles

the articles about Flat tax and Income tax#Countries with no personal income tax have information contradicting (or missing) the current list on Tax rates around the world:

missing:

  • Georgia - flat tax
  • Andorra, Vanuatu, Mauritius and others - 0%

contradicting:

  • Saudi Arabia - 20% vs. 0%
  • Serbia, Lithuania, Ukraine - flat vs. non-flat

These four lists need attention to be synchronized:

Alinor 18:41, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

As for Georgia, Serbia, Lithuania, Ukraine: there are references to outside sources confirming that these countries have flat tax systems on the Flat tax adoption around the world page. The other pages are flat-out (no pun intended) (well, pun intended, you win) wrong and need to be updated. As for Andorra, Vanuatu, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia: I have no clue. I deliberately refrained from explicitly listing zero-tax countries on the Flat tax adoption around the world page, because they are hard to find information about, and there already was a page dedicated to those. Many of the zero-tax countries are either very small or isolated and it can be tricky to find out much about them. Sjeng 15:25, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
Did this ever get sorted out? Morphh (talk) 14:12, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Personal Income Tax

Hi. Paraguay appears none in the list of countries with PIT nor with non PIT.....error —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.73.96.2 (talk) 18:30, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rome

Even though it is a good tidbit, I really don’t think ancient Rome should be on this list. I think that would be more appropriate for a page concerning the history of taxation if one existed. Though there is not a lot of history of taxes books out there, from what I have read I believe Rome had very low taxes for most of its history. I believe Rome did not see anything around the 90% mark until the very end of the empire, Emperor Diocletian if my memory serves me right. Like most pre-20th century civilizations for the most part taxes were much lower than they are today. I think it might be a little deceptive showing their rates over such a long period if the rates rarely achieved such extreme heights. Just a thought.--Scott (talk) 03:44, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

It's pretty meanignless to say an empire - with a multiplicity of systems and distinctive periods - had a 0%-90% tax rate, supposedly averaged over 1000 years. The same is true of Europe, for instance, yet asserting that for Europe would be close to meanignless, even if true in some complex and obscure emprical sense. (Leon Louw) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.243.195.190 (talk) 09:27, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ref blacklisted

FYI, I tried to format worldwide-tax.com into a proper reference and it got kicked back as being on the WP:BLACKLIST. We may want to consider a different reference as this may not satisfy our reliable source policy. I also noted how similar our table is to their table and I'm wondering if we may have some copyright issues. Morphh (talk) 20:27, 06 February 2008 (UTC)

Is there a reason for it being blacklisted? Wikipedia treats it like spam, but I don't see how the site could be spammy. I admit I used the site for convenience (neat table), even though we should probably use FITA for all the countries to save us some trouble. ☆ CieloEstrellado 21:09, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
It was probably added as at some point because someone was adding this web site to every external link section of tax articles. Morphh (talk) 21:14, 06 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Top State tax rate in the US

It is 10.3% in California for Personal Income Taxes. (for those earning more than $1m/year). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.178.26.108 (talk) 10:27, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

Some of the sources used for this article are unreliable. Tax rates change frequently, and I suggest that any source which has not been updated in the last 12 months should not be used. The FITA site seems particularly out of date. The UK rates on that site (I am from the UK) are showing the 2002 rates! I suggest that before using any source from outside the country concerned you see what it says about the rates in your own country as a test of its reliability.Mhockey (talk) 15:23, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

One would ideally consult with the Tax Office web site of each country, but not all of them speak English or have English language versions, so you have to use secondary sources. ☆ CieloEstrellado 15:55, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
Agreed. If you can get the info from the tax authority's own website, that will almost always be the best source. But if you have to use secondary sources, do not take them at face value, they are of varying quality. It is important to look at how often they are updated. Mhockey (talk) 20:31, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Starting rate

Can we all agree that the starting rate for personal income tax should be the starting rate of taxable income, after exemptions, which will not be 0% except when the country has no personal income tax? That was the suggestion of DJ Clayworth above (see #Graduate rate), and it must be right. Mhockey (talk) 14:20, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

I disagree. Some countries tax everyone and some don't. The only way to know is if the minimum is 0%. That means some aren't getting taxed. ☆ CieloEstrellado 03:48, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
The UK taxes everyone, so in that case a 0% is inaccurate. ☆ CieloEstrellado 03:53, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Every individual resident of the UK has an exemption, so if your income is less than the exemption your tax is nil. But I think that's the same in every country - at least, I am not aware of any country which taxes everyone from the first $1 of income. If that's the case, then the starting rate in every country could be said to be 0%, but that does not seem to me to be very useful. (Corporate income tax is different - most countries tax companies from the first $1 of income.) Mhockey (talk) 17:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] UK income tax should start at 10%

The first band of unearned income is taxed at 10% rather than the 20% in the article. And the first £5,435 of income has no tax at all.

Also national insurance is another income tax, which should possibly be included in the total. Comrinec (talk) 15:51, 5 May 2008 (UTC)