U.S. taxes are low compared to OECD countries - Tax Policy Center

[Bill USA]

.... yeah, it's just one more Big Lie the GOPers keep repeating - that the U.S. has exorbitant tax rates. Here's what the Tax Policy Center has to say:


http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/international.cfm">The Numbers: How do U.S. taxes compare internationally?

U.S. taxes are low relative to those in other developed countries. In 2006 U.S. taxes at all levels of government claimed 28 percent of GDP, compared with an average of 36 percent of GDP for the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

{.... that puts about two thirds of the countries in the OECD with higher taxes as a percent of GDP - and they don't have the massive defense budget we do!}



■ Among OECD countries only Mexico, Turkey, Korea, and Japan had lower taxes than the United States as a percentage of GDP. In many European countries taxes exceeded 40 percent of GDP, but those countries generally provide much more extensive government services to their citizens than the United States does.

■ The United States relies less on consumption taxes—17 percent of total 2006 tax receipts—than any other OECD country. Revenue from such taxes averaged 32 percent of total taxes among the 30 OECD countries. Mexico, in contrast, collected 56 percent of its 2006 tax revenue from consumption taxes.

■ Personal income taxes made up 36 percent of U.S. tax revenue in 2006, more than in most other OECD countries, where such taxes averaged 25 percent of the total. However, individual taxpayers paid a larger share of tax revenue in Denmark (50 percent), New Zealand (41 percent), and Australia (37 percent).
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■ U.S. employees, on average, contributed more in taxes for retirement and disability insurance—10 percent of total tax receipts—than many of their OECD counterparts, where such taxes accounted for 9 percent of total receipts on average. U.S. employers, however, contributed less: 12 percent of the total compared with OECD employers’ average of 15 percent.

[Doctor_J]

1. These zillionaires who appear on cable "news" and threaten

to move to another country if their taxes go up are liars. There is almost no place for them to go where their taxes would be lower.

[JohnWxy]

2. recommended. Great reference material for those who venture out to post on M$M sites!