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Comment by vegasbrianc | Hacker News Reader

That is also why the taxes are 52%. They have to nail everyone else who does work full time and earns a decent wage.

Thanks for misrepresenting that. 52% is the highest tax bracket which most people won't hit. The brackets are 2.35%, 10.85%, 42% and 52%. The first two brackets also contain the Social Security payments - which the part-time workers definitely hit.

(Edit for completeness : effectively the tax brackets end up as 33, 41, 42, 52).

The 52% rate only applies to the highest bracker of income (above € 54.776). Taxes on other brackets are far lower. The relative high tax rates also buy you good insurance, a government-sanctioned pension, coverage of some costs of studying, etc.

Or in other words, taxes are relatively high because it is a welfare state.

That's about $75,000. I am sure a lot of people pay that. Its nice to see that it also buys you better insurance, pretty good. That's the way it should be! In the UK all you get is the same kind of health care irrespective of your contribution.

I think he means that the existence of high tax rates buys everyone good insurance, etc. I haven't heard of people in higher tax brackets getting better health insurance than those in lower ones. So it would be the same as in the UK. Then again, I left the Netherlands nine years ago, so who knows, maybe it has changed since then... =/

You're correct zephyrfalcon. People get the same kind of health care, no matter if they earn a lot or not much compared to others.

Zephyr is right, it buys everyone the same insurance

You cannot compare salaries in Europe and the US directly. For example, average salary after mandatory payment to health care, retirement and unemployment insurance is around 26000 euros/year for men in France (http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?reg_id=0&id=38, official statistical institute in France, generally considered very reliable). This means something like 34000 euros / year before any taxes. So no, not many people earn 75000$ / year.

FYI: Here's a comparison of tax rates/brackets from around the world:

http://www.worldwide-tax.com/

The Netherlands' are high, but not higher than other northern-European countries.

Sorry to nitpick, but The Netherlands isn't situated in Northern Europe. It's in Western Europe. Also, 'The Netherlands' is singular, not plural.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Netherlands

Double-nitpick:

"The Netherlands' are high" does not suggest that "The Netherlands" is plural; only that its taxes are.

I'm aware, thank you. 'Roadnottaken' changed his/her post after I commented. I understand that makes it look like I was referring to the phrase "The Netherlands' are high".

Those numbers are not very accurate I think, they are too general. For example, VAT in France is 19.6 % only for a portion of products: medicines, food is around 6 %, while some other products are heavily taxed (the usual gas, tobacco, etc... where most of the price is taxes).

I've thought about moving their and ran the numbers. It's comparable to the US when you include local/state/property taxes and health care. Services in the US are a la carte, Europe is all-inclusive.

The word tax is misrepresentative - they don't buy you the same thing at all in Europe and in the US. Although most European also use tax to name anything they have to pay to the gvt agencies, a significant part of it buys you things you have to pay for yourself in the US, like health care and retirement.

You can argue about the services you get, but comparing directly taxes without taking into account the services provided in return is disingenuous.

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