Tax Freedom Day For Workers in The European Union
A 2010 study published in L'Anglophone, a Brussels newspaper, compared the tax burdens of "Average Joes" in each of the 27 EU member states and projected the Tax Freedom Day for workers earning a typical wage. Income taxes, social security contributions (by the employee and the employer) and projected VAT contributions were included in the calculations.
Regarding the discrepancy between their calculation of August 3 as the typical Belgian worker's Tax Freedom Day and that of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), L'Anglophone's authors wrote: " figures count revenue from all taxes (including those on corporate profits, petrol, cigarettes, &c.) and thus present a more complete picture of the country’s total tax burden," adding that it is "an average applied to all Belgians – not all Belgian workers; in 2008, less than half of Belgium’s population (4.99 million working out of 10.67 million citizens) was legally working. Consequently, a huge share of Belgium’s tax burden is borne by the working population."
| Country | Day of year | % burden | Date of year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 191 | 52.2% | 10 July |
| Belgium | 215 | 58.5% | 3 August |
| Bulgaria | 145 | 39.5% | 25 May |
| Cyprus | 72 | 19.4% | 13 March |
| Czech Rep. | 165 | 44.9% | 14 June |
| Denmark | 168 | 45.7% | 17 June |
| Estonia | 150 | 40.7% | 30 May |
| Finland | 166 | 45.2% | 15 June |
| France | 207 | 56.4% | 26 July |
| Germany | 200 | 54.6% | 19 July |
| Greece | 164 | 44.6% | 13 June |
| Hungary | 218 | 59.4% | 6 August |
| Ireland | 117 | 31.9% | 27 April |
| Italy | 169 | 46.0% | 18 June |
| Latvia | 161 | 43.7% | 10 June |
| Lithuania | 167 | 45.4% | 16 June |
| Luxembourg | 135 | 36.8% | 15 May |
| Malta | 99 | 26.8% | 9 April |
| Netherlands | 184 | 50.2% | 03 Jul |
| Poland | 160 | 43.6% | 9 June |
| Portugal | 150 | 40.9% | 30 May |
| Romania | 178 | 48.6% | 27 June |
| Slovakia | 167 | 45.5% | 16 June |
| Slovenia | 164 | 44.7% | 13 June |
| Spain | 136 | 37.0% | 16 May |
| Sweden | 181 | 49.4% | 30 June |
| United Kingdom | 134 | 36.3% | 13 May |
Read more about this topic: Tax Freedom Day
Famous quotes containing the words tax, freedom, day, workers, european and/or union:
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 18:13.
“I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.”
—Margaret Atwood (b. 1939)
“Nor youth, nor strength, nor wisdom spring again,
Nor habitations long their names retain,
But in oblivion to the final day remain.”
—Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672)
“The industrial world would be a more peaceful place if workers were called in as collaborators in the process of establishing standards and defining shop practices, matters which surely affect their interests and well-being fully as much as they affect those of employers and consumers.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“In European thought in general, as contrasted with American, vigor, life and originality have a kind of easy, professional utterance. American—on the other hand, is expressed in an eager amateurish way. A European gives a sense of scope, of survey, of consideration. An American is strained, sensational. One is artistic gold; the other is bullion.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order, of union with God, the principle of all perfection.”
—Thomas Merton (1915–1968)