“Taxes are a beautiful thing” said the good soul of Tommaso Padoa Schioppa in 2007. And he was right, given that taxes are the petrol that makes the engine of the state work. All right, except that, in many cases, we pay dearly for poor or very poor quality petrol.
The Brazilian Institute of Tax Planning wanted to measure the quality of this "gasoline" and drew up the ranking of the 30 countries in which the highest taxes are paid. And he came out, without much surprise actually, that Brazil and Italy are at the bottom of the table, respectively in the last and penultimate position. In fact, if as citizens we pay very high taxes, in exchange the state offers us poor services and scarce state investments. In Brazil, 35% of GDP comes from taxes, while in Italy it is as much as 43% (2010 OECD data).
At the top of the ranking is Australia. According to Brazilian analysts it is the best country in which to pay taxes: Australians pay the state 25,9%, but they have the highest rate of return on services and investments by the state. Close behind, with similar percentages, are the United States (24,8%), South Korea (25,1%), Japan (26,8%), Ireland (28%) and Switzerland (29,8 .XNUMX%). In practice, where you pay the least you get the best economic return for citizens.
And if Germany, England and Austria fare far better than the Bel Paese, we are also overtaken by Greece, Slovakia, Argentina and Uruguay. Instead, Belgium, Hungary and France are not doing much better than us, ahead of us by a hair's breadth.
A surprise comes instead Scandinavian countries: famous for the excellent quality of the services offered, however, they are placed in the lower part of the ranking. “Denmark and Sweden collect a lot, but even so they are not among the first when it comes to IDH (the human development index, ed)” explains IBPT president João Eloi Olenike.
For example, Australia has a tax burden of 25,9%, almost half that of Denmark (44,6%). Nevertheless the Australian IDH is 0,929, while in Denmark it is 0,895. "The countries that offer a better return to the population, as in the case of Australia - Olenike points out - manage to maintain a high IDH with fewer resources than, for example, Denmark and Norway".
In other countries, like in Brazil and Italy, despite too many taxes, there is a plastered system that spends too much to make the administrative machine work, to pay the public debt and social security. If we then include corruption, tax evasion and waste, the picture is complete and taxes turn into a very bad thing.
Look at the ranking.
