The UK enjoys the worst of both worlds: the high taxes of Europe combined with the low benefits of the US like no free higher education (Germany provides free university education even for foreigners, for instance).
Fwiw, Germany is also taking a big chunk ontop.
If you add taxes taken from your wage and VAT, forced social security payments etc all up, you'll end with a rough taxation of ~50% in UK. Of you do the same in Germany you end up over 60%, often nearing 70% unless you're a single income household with kids (they lower the tax burden a lot through deductions. Obviously still expensive, but your social contributions go down a lot.)
(That pay would effectively be almost 10x what the average person in the US makes a year.)
That’s without oasdi, Medicare, state taxes, city taxes, and insurance.
44% though was high, you’re right about that, because some of that tax was paid up front off of bonuses and will reduce over the course of the year.
I’ll probably end up around 35% without counting retirement and of course without counting all the other nickle and diming taxes that are paid post tax
Ofc not counting social security, medicare, and that state tax that is around half as much as what you are paying federally (which is more than double many other localities).
So you were saying as a combination kind of effective tax rate, got it.
When you first said that 44% number, it was very fishy - because there is a federal cap at 37% :)
I'm in a dual income high earner family, and my rate is lower than that (35%). I live in a high income tax state. I included medical + dental + vision, but NOT life/accident insurance, flex accounts etc.
Are you sure you're not counting SPP contributions? And are you deducting the tax refund you get every year (which eventually takes into account all the deductions, etc you get)?
My net pay is only 41% (i.e. 59% is taken out) - but that's due to 401K, ESPP and other voluntary insurances I pay for.
We have some quite substantial benefits, such as mostly free healthcare.
University tuition fees are heavily subsidised for British students, especially at better universities or expensive to provide subjects. Fees at leading universities are much lower than in the US ( https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/hig... ) - although US universities have more fee waivers for students from lower income families etc. AFAIK it is private money funding that, not public.
Student loans are once again heavily subsidised - the interest rate is inflation.
Not all British universities are world class. The expansion of higher education has increased the number of lower quality universities and courses. In Scotland there are no fees, but a lower proportion of school leavers go to university. The rest of the UK should do at least the same - IMO shut down whole institutions and courses.
Taxes in the UK are quite low by European standards. The UK's tax revenue to GDP ratio is similar to Canada's (either a bit lower or a bit higher, depending on year/source).
https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/topics/policy-sub-i... (page 8)