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Comment by throwaway60722 | Hacker News Reader

There are states with much lower taxes that also pay for education. Why should Germans pay so much?

There are people who didn't go to university doing business too.

In the eighties, income tax in Germany could go up to 56%. It is much lower know. Taxes are somewhat relative in space and time.

Just over the border is a country with effective income tax for self-employed businessmen around 5-15%.

I have been self-employed under a Polish business (działalność gospodarcza) for the last few years. With income tax plus mandatory pension and health contributions, over a third of my income goes to taxes or other mandatory fees (like the requirement to have a licensed accountant keep your books). It really isn’t much different than most other EU countries. And of course one pays a comparable VAT on shopping.

Often in Poland people say “Why are you running your business here? Base it in Czech Republic!” The grass always is greener on the other side.

In Czech Republic as self-employed ("živnostník") your effective tax+insurance rate for income up to 2M CZK (~ 80k EUR) is never more than 15%. I have SW contractor friends paying around 8-12% - including health and social insurance. No need to have any accountant at all for income under 2M CZK, you just keep your invoices and sum your income at the end of a year, the tax return form is online and the sum of income is your only input.

In the UK, SW contractor easily can pay over 50% of tax and can't deduct any business expenses on top of that.

Well, that's sad. What do they get from the state that people in Czech Republic don't?

Nothing. In the UK is the more you pay the less you get.

Why not name the country?

There are not so many options you couldn't just check yourself... But to answer your question - Poland and Czech Republic.

Well I could but it would take a while, no other country in Europe has as many neighbours as Germany. Thanks for replying.

There are many, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, Andorra to name a few

I would guess Poland

you are not forced to live and do business here. Feel free to move to another country if you don't like the taxes. But you can't just avoid the taxes because you feel like it. I don't care how much you would loose by not avoiding taxes.

Society only functions if everyone contributes. And the rest of society pays their taxes, you know. They can't avoid paying taxes on their car through a foreign holding structure. It's a slap on their face because you feel like you should have more.

>Society only functions if everyone contributes. And the rest of society pays their taxes, you know.

Yes, everyone except German businesses dealing in cash only who don't issue receipts, and the likes of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Airbus, NXP, IKEA, ST etc. and all these conglomerate with complex tax avoidance schemes spread across Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and some Caribbean islands who neither fully belonging to the British or Dutch crowns nor are fully independent nations, but some fuzzy situation in between.

You see, once we let so many players legally avoid paying taxes in broad daylight, it's difficult to uphold the social contract that "we should all pay taxes" as then it turns into a crabs in a bucket situation where the veil is lifted and the Average Joe sees through the cash-grab scam that the tax system is on the working class, and will do everything in his power to avoid paying taxes as well.

If you want people to respect the social contract of the welfare state, we need to hold everyone accountable to it with no exceptions, not just the poor suckers who have no means of dodging it or fighting back, while the super wealthy are laughing all the way to the bank.

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