Tuesday, August 1, 2017

TAXES: AMERICA VERSUS THE WORLD

Late last July, President Trump talked about taxes:
At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said that, in America, "we have the highest taxes in the world." In reality, the United States has average or below average taxes compared to similar economies.*
...........................................................................
Regardless of how you measure the tax burden, the President's claim is not borne out by the facts. As measured by percentage of GDP, numerous European countries that provide more social services tax their citizens more heavily than the U.S. does, the BBC reports: "In 2015, the U.S. tax take came in at 26.4 percent of GDP, well below countries such as Italy at 43.3 percent, France at 45.5 percent and Denmark at 46.6 percent."*
You can see this reflected in a chart by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in 2016, which uses slightly different numbers. By their calculations, Denmark comes in at over 50 percent. But the U.S. remains steady at 26 percent, significantly below the average of 34 percent. As such, America is actually "among the lowest-taxed countries in the OECD."*


(click on figure to enlarge)


(click on figure to enlarge)


* https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/trump-claims-america-has-the-highest-taxes-in-the-world.html?recirc=taboolainternal

No comments:

Post a Comment