No matter where you live or how much money you make, you probably think you’re paying too much tax. But are Aussies really that hard done by? This infographic provides some answers.
The below infographic comes from the payroll and contractor management company Ayers. It breaks down the amount of tax paid by single individuals on an average income in various parts of the world. Interestingly, Australia didn’t even make the top 10: countries with higher tax rates included the USA, the UK and, Germany New Zealand. Belgium currently tops the world with the average salary taxed a whopping 42.8%.
The graph also includes an in-depth spotlight on current tax bands for residents and foreigners living in Australia and where the world’s biggest tax havens are situated. (Surprise, surprise; Switzerland gets a mention here.)
Check out the full infographic below:
[Via Ayers]
Comments
18 responses to “How Does Australia’s Tax Rate Compare To The Rest Of The World? [Infographic]”
I quite enjoy that the New Zealand flag is incorrect. Now I see why they want to change it, they’re jealous of our tax rates.
WHY would you exclude the Medicare Levy or Budget Repair Levy?
I mean, I understand why the government likes to keep it in the fine print, because it makes the numbers look better – but since it’s an unavoidable tax, I wish the people making info-graphics would just incorporate them into the tax bands. They’re unavoidable, so it makes no sense not to just include it.
Also, it’d be nice to see what the sales tax in each country is – it’s all well and good that our “average” tax rate doesn’t make the list, but if you compare our company income tax rate of 30%, plus 10% GST (consumption tax), you have an effective Australian tax rate of 40% … putting us #2, behind Belgium.
Even worse if you earn more than $37,001 – take your ‘base’ tax rate of 32.5%, add 2% medicare tax, and 10% consumption tax, and you’re happily sitting on a 44.5% effective tax rate. That would make us #1.
We’re not the only country that charges taxes in addition to income tax.
And pointing out the GST isn’t going to help much: many countries have higher VAT/GST rates than we do (probably including most of the ones in the top 10 from the image).
and….. your maths is wrong. Sorry Im a tax accountant and it just doesnt work that way
How does Australia not make the top 10? The graphic shows that the tax rates start at 32.5% over a certain point, and given the average salary of $74k, the effective tax is around 22%?
The average (mean) isn’t a good indication of what most people earn, as it gets skewed by very high incomes.
The median salary is in the 50k mark.
Also wondering this.
This just measures income tax. You need to include the hundred other taxes we pay. Even calculating tax receipts as a portion of GDP give a better indication.
it would be more interesting to compare tax concessions (read: tax deductions and what not) available almost exclusively to rich baby boomers in Australia. I can guarantee you Australia will be in the top 3.
According to AWOTE the average salary is $77,459/yr. And when I plug this into a simple tax calculator, the tax rate is 23.6% making it higher than the US.
Yes. even using the ATO simple tax calculator, a person earnning $60,000 would pay $11,047 in tax.
That is, the person will pay 18.4% tax and place Australians in the top ten list of tax paying countries.
VAT/GST rates: Belgium 21%, Germany 19%, Denmark 25%, Hungary 27% (18% on food), Austria 20%(10% on food), Greece 23% (13% on food and 6% on medicines), UK20%, USA (lots of different rates from 4% to 7% plus city specific rates), NZ 15% (9% on rents), Israel 17%.
That german tax rate gives you a free education and healthcare system though…
Yep – pretty meaningless comparison if you don’t compare what you get for the tax that you do pay.
A low income tax, but with little or no government services can end up actually costing you more that a high-taxing, but high-level service providing public sector.
Very surprised that Denmark is the only Scandinavian country in the top 10. That said, Scandinavians are generally pretty happy about high tax rates. I guess it all comes down to trusting what your government does with it https://sweden.se/society/why-swedes-are-okay-with-paying-taxes/
Always beware of people using “average” (=mean) when talking about incomes. This number is skewed up significantly by sky-high incomes at the top end and over-represents what might be considered a “normal” income.
A better measure for “average” (= what the typical punter earns) is the median, and that’s about $55k in Australia.
From memory, the top 10% of earners kicks in at about $100k, top 5% at about $180k and top 1% at about $250k.
@drsmithy according to the ABS, “All employees average weekly total earnings” is $1,136.60 which is almost $60k. Its over $80k for full-time workers.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/6302.0/
ATO tax statistics are here https://www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/Research-and-statistics/In-detail/Tax-statistics/Taxation-statistics-2012-13–100-people/
ATO says: Below we show the proportion of all net tax paid when we ranked our 100 people by their taxable incomes.
People with the top three taxable incomes paid 27% of all net tax.
The next six paid 20% of all net tax.
The next 30 paid 42% of all net tax.
The next 35 paid 11% of all net tax.
The last 26 didn’t pay any tax.
So the top 9% of income earners paid almost 50% of all income tax…
“income earners”? 21 people didn’t have an occupation. Lodging a tax return doesn’t mean you had an income, it means you had tax withheld by the ATO.
1) The infographic was produced by a payroll solutions provider.
2) The infographic subject is INCOME tax, but it doesn’t state that clearly. See 1).
3) It’s nigh on impossible to compare tax between countries on a micro scale. Isn’t it just easier to divide tax take by population? Or government spending vs surplus/deficit? There are other, more meaningful measures.
4) The obsession with tax annoys me. Take my money, go spend it making the country a better place. Improve health and education. Build infrastructure. kthxbai.