TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Last Friday one of the British customers told me that in Italy pension contributions are (too) high. Adding taxes and contributions, her income is halved.In light of that meeting, given that I agree with her, I compared the tax and contributions rate in the world (usually I have to observe “only” 6 different countries).In the world, there is a, more or less, general decrease in tax rates but not in contribution rate.The United States, this year, has reduced the corporate tax rate to 21% (perhaps with negative effects on bilateral agreements), Netherlands’ government has proposed to cancel the taxation on the dividends, France, this year, has lowered the rate at 28% for incomes up to 500,000 euro, the United Kingdom, from 1st April 2017, lowered the corporate tax (our IRES) to 19%, in Italy the IRES (the tax for limited companies) ) was lowered to 24% and a simplified tax system was created for small traders.As described  in the table below, where the main European Union countries are present (source: il Sole 24 Ore), considering only the tax rate Italy is in the middle of the European ranking but adding the tax and the contribution rate, unfortunately, It’s in the 4th place preceded by: France, Greece and Germany.The United Kingdom has a much better tax and contribution rate (it is second only to Ireland) but, considering the great uncertainty brought by the Brexit, the figure can only be seen as significant until March 2019. Afterwards, the consequences of the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union could lead to negative consequences that can not be offset by low tax and low pension contribution rate.Country Company tax Pension contribution + company tax % % E.U. France 33,33 62,20 Greece 29,00 51,70 Spain 25,00 46,90 Netherlands 25,00 40,70 Italy 24,00 48,00 Portugal 21,00 39,80 U.K 19,00 30,70 Germany 15,83 48,90 Ireland 12,50 26,00 Extra E.U. Brazil 34,00 68,40 Mexico 30,00 52,10 Australia 30,00 47,50 China 25,00 67,30 Japan 23,20 47,40 Turkey 22,00 41,10 USA 21,00 43,80 Russia 20,00 47,50 Canada 15,00 20,90 www.studio-alessio.it