And then there's crime.

The crime rate is lower in a high-tax country. A murder is frontpage news here in Denmark. There's no guns in circulation. You can walk the streets at night in any part of the country. There's no desperate people doing crimes for a living except for the occasional drug addict who may try to break into your house.

Life without fear.

Holland has one of the highest rates, 35% tax over your profit, 19% VAT over your turnover. Comes down to about 54% (for minimum wage), and it can be a lot higher if your turnover is high but the profit low (if you have a lot of bills).

By the way, can anyone give me the tax rates in Germany? Thanks.

Don't forget 'hidden' taxes like fuel excise. In Australia, you have...

1. retail price of fuel supplier
2. plus fuel excise
3. plus 10% GST of 1+2

It's a double tax.

Currently Melbourne prices are 84c per litre according to Shell, which is broken down like this:

a) 34.6c refinery price
b) 45.3c tax
c) 4.1c margin

The tax added is actually higher than the sum of the refinery price and margin, so it more than doubles the cost at the pump.

I'm about to look into this myself, I'm already losing money as an individual by not setting up a company... I don't know if there will be any direct monetary benefits (unless you do tricky things like deliberate losses or keep most of your profits sitting untouched in a corporate bank account), but there should be indirect benefits such as salary sacrificing (cheaper new car!) and super. Another way to save a bit of on income tax with a teired system like Australia is to employ your partner and split the salary down the middle.

Let's say...

100k taxable income on Joe Aussie
=$33,807 in tax

But split that in half...

50k taxable income on Joe Aussie
50k taxable income on Jo Aussie
=$11,172 each ($22,344 total tax)

BTW, I'm in Melbourne too. :)

sweden is pretty crazy:

Income tax: 30-50% depending on how much you earn
Social fees: 30%

VAT: 25%

So if you'd earn $10k / month as a sole proprietor you'd have $3.5k left. And when you then burn that money on things you'll have to pay 25% VAT.

So I guess it'd be fair to say that we swedes pay about 72% in taxes.

sweden: ~50% including social fees

The good old US taxes more than people think.

People forget that on top of the Federal Income Tax most States have an income tax, some cities have an income tax. Sales, Vehicle taxes, fuel taxes, Medicare Tax, Social Security tax.

Then consider, no free medical care, no free college education, etc.

You get what you pay for in Europe, we pay and get squat.

damn true

If your income is from overseas, I assume you've looked into keeping it offshore and bringing it in via other means than cashing the cheques in your bank account...? You might consider having no money going thru your Australian banks at all.

Well obviously Sweden and Holland will have higher tax... the more socialis thte country the higher the tax.... but the more things it gets you too.

I'm surprised nobody said the USA - has one of the higher tax rates in the world. Of course depends on your income, but a successful corporation is paying almost 40%.

Excuse me, but where in Denmark do you live?
Did you know that in an average week there are 5 armed robberies in Denmark? And that is in a country of 5 million people!
You've got the Hells Angels running the drug market, shooting up who ever gets in their way. And personally, I do not feel all that safe walking around Istegade on a weekend after midnight.
You do not live in somesort of a crime free paradise.
And that bullshit theory of yours about high-tax countries being safer than others, what are you comparing with? Congo?
Germany is more dangerous than England, and they still pay way more taxes in Germany, so this little theory of yours kind of kills it self :glugglug