Hacker News Reader

Yeah my eyes are bulging every time I find a job posting based in Brussels or Antwerp and then quickly run some gross-net simulations online. Whait... what?! Over 50% monthly on contributions and taxes? What the fucking fuck?! Employees of EU and other institutions have generous exempts and privileges, otherwise I have no idea what might be the motivation of a person employed in Belgium.

View on HN

Looking at the OECD data, one thing that is striking is that Belgium "rejoins the pack" if you look at the tax burden for a two-parent single-earner family.

Looking at the list (OECD Taxing Wages), I'm going to hazard a guess that it's a cultural/religious thing - it looks like the drop in the average tax rate as a proportion of household income for a single-earner vs. the same income for a single person is far greater in countries with a significant proportion of Catholics.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com