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Comment by nvarsj | Hacker News Reader

In pretty much every western European country your tax rates can easily hit 60%+ (like the 100k 60% cliff in the UK). The budgets of these governments are all largely funded on the backs of middle class income tax - 40% of all receipts in the UK, plus another 10-15% from VAT - compared to a lowly 9% from corporation tax [1]. You have to wonder how the economy can ever evolve given everything is geared towards suppressing middle class earners from ever having significant capital.

1: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...

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The 60% effective tax rate is only on earnings between 100k and 125k, and only because of the loss of certain tax benefits. After 125k it drops back to 40%. It's really silly that it exists, but isn't representative of UK tax rates, it is just a weird side effect of the loss of the personal allowance.

And I reckon most earning between 100k and 125k would avoid that 60% by contributing to their pension, so I don't think many are affected by it.

If you make £60k before tax, your effective rate is still about 40% (if you add employer's NI which does not appear on payslips). Then you also have to add local taxes like council tax etc. It's not looking good. From tomorrow we are also going to get this - https://norightsemployee.uk/faq - workers on such contracts will have to factor employer's NI and apprenticeship levy in their rates.

That’s the same kind of nuance which makes the linked article’s claim of 1% tax paid a non story (at least in the context of talking about Netflix specifically).

Surely you mean marginal tax rates and not effective rates? Or is it true that at 124K you pay ~74K but at 126K you pay less, ~50K?

Sorry, you're right I meant marginal.

Nearly every European country has yet to recover to pre-2000 crash market levels. Western Europe's economy has yet yo fully integrate with the 21st century.

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