Tax receipts as % GDP per country - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14705662
World Bank-2012 Data wrote:Macao SAR, China 36.9
Denmark 33.3
New Zealand 28.4
Seychelles 28.4
Malta 27.3
Norway 27.0
Jamaica 27.0
Botswana 26.9
Barbados 26.1
Sweden 26.1
Luxembourg 25.9
Austria 25.7
Belgium 25.7
South Africa 25.5
United Kingdom 25.5
Georgia 24.1
Italy 23.6
Greece 23.6
Cyprus 23.3
Dominica 23.1
Hungary 23.0
St. Lucia 22.9
Belize 22.6
France 22.6
Ireland 22.6
Iceland 22.2
Israel 21.9
Australia 21.3
Tunisia 21.1
Portugal 20.9
Bosnia and Herzegovina 20.5
Turkey 20.4
Mozambique 20.4
Finland 20.3
St. Kitts and Nevis 20.2
Serbia 19.7
Netherlands 19.6
Croatia 19.6
Suriname 19.5
Senegal 19.2
Chile 19.1
Mauritius 19.0
Angola 18.8
Uruguay 18.8
Grenada 18.7
Moldova 18.6
Bulgaria 18.6
Antigua and Barbuda 18.6
Ukraine 18.3
Kyrgyz Republic 18.1
Romania 18.0
Slovenia 17.6
Armenia 17.5
Togo 16.6
Peru 16.5
Macedonia, FYR 16.4
Poland 15.9
Kenya 15.9
Burkina Faso 15.6
Malaysia 15.6
Lebanon 15.5
Thailand 15.5
Mongolia 15.3
Jordan 15.3
Nicaragua 15.1
Belarus 15.1
Lao PDR 14.8
Honduras 14.7
El Salvador 14.5
Benin 14.5
Cote d'Ivoire 14.3
Brazil 14.1
Russian Federation 14.0
Latvia 14.0
Sao Tome and Principe 13.9
Nepal 13.9
Singapore 13.9
Rwanda
Costa Rica 13.7
Czech Republic 13.5
Spain 13.4
Colombia 13.3
Dominican Republic 13.1
Mali 13.0
Azerbaijan 13.0
Philippines 12.9
Paraguay 12.8
Egypt, Arab Rep. 12.5
Slovak Republic 12.1
Canada 11.8
Tanzania 11.7
Germany 11.6
Indonesia 11.4
Cambodia 11.1
Uganda 11.0
Guatemala 10.8
India 10.8
Sri Lanka 10.4
Pakistan 10.1
Japan 10.1
United States 9.8
Switzerland 9.5
Central African Republic 9.4
Afghanistan 7.5
West Bank and Gaza 4.6
Lithuania 4.5
Oman 2.6
Nigeria 1.6
Estonia 1.0
United Arab Emirates 0.4
Samoa 0.0
World 13.6


So what kind of % do you reckon is ideal for modern economies? And why?
#14705668
Damn, China and New Zealand.
I didn't realise!

I'll take low taxes please. Japan and America seem like decent places to live. I'll match theirs.

Bugger about China. I was thinking it was going to be the land of opportunity. Guess communism isn't quite dead after all.

I see Spain is taking the piss. Remind me not to lend them any money.
#14705835
The list doesn't seem right. Germany 11%, but Austria 25%? Germany should surely be in the 20s too.

By the way, this doesn't include social insurance contribution which account for a lot of government spending too. A comparison of gov revenue should probably include both sources.
#14705861
The list is weird because it says Tax Receipts as % GDP. This is weird because it doesn't show the actual tax rate. It just shows how much the budget is vs the gdp but again those numbers are not possible.

Estonian budget is 10billion USD while the GDP is 40 Billion USD. How is this 1% :knife:
#14705863
World Bank wrote:About the Data
Tax revenue (% of GDP)
Long definition
Tax revenue refers to compulsory transfers to the central government for public purposes. Certain compulsory transfers such as fines, penalties, and most social security
contributions are excluded. Refunds and corrections of erroneously collected tax revenue are treated as negative revenue.

Source
International Monetary Fund, Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files, and World Bank and OECD GDP estimates.
Tax payments (number)
Long definition
Tax payments by businesses are the total number of taxes paid by businesses, including electronic filing. The tax is counted as paid once a year even if payments are more
frequent.
Source
World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).
States and Markets 5.6 World Development Indicators:
Tax policies
World Development Indicators Last updated date:07/22/2016
Long definition
Time to prepare and pay taxes is the time, in hours per year, it takes to prepare, file, and pay (or withhold) three major types of taxes: the corporate income tax, the value added or sales tax, and labor taxes, including payroll taxes and social security contributions.
Source
World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).
General comments
Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.
Profit tax (% of commercial profits)
Long definition
Profit tax is the amount of taxes on profits paid by the business.
Source
World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).
General comments
Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.
Labor tax and contributions (% of commercial profits)
Long definition
Labor tax and contributions is the amount of taxes and mandatory contributions on labor paid by the business.
Source
World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).
General comments
Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.
Other taxes payable by businesses (% of commercial profits)
Long definition
Other taxes payable by businesses include the amounts paid for property taxes, turnover taxes, and other small taxes such as municipal fees and vehicle and fuel taxes.
Source
World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).
General comments
Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.
Total tax rate (% of commercial profits)
Long definition
Total tax rate measures the amount of taxes and mandatory contributions payable by businesses after accounting for allowable deductions and exemptions as a share of
commercial profits. Taxes withheld (such as personal income tax) or collected and remitted to tax authorities (such as value added taxes, sales taxes or goods and service taxes)
are excluded.
#14705872
Our main Tax is VAT and it is excluded so no wonder it is 1% :eh: Here is the problem.
#14705873
VAT is not excluded from Tax revenue which is what the list is, it is excluded from the total tax rate which is another list in the same website.

Estonia does not have corporate taxes at all:

Legal persons income tax rate is 20% in the year 2015. However, the system of corporate earnings taxation currently in force in Estonia is a unique system, which shifts the moment of corporate taxation from the moment of earning the profits to the moment of their distribution. In other words, earning profits in itself does not bring income tax liability, which arises only when earned profit is distributed to shareholders. In case profit distributed to shareholders originates from dividends received from subsidiary company or from permanent establishment corporation has in other country, then profit distribution is tax exempt. Estonia does not have withholding tax on dividends paid.
#14705875
Austria doesn't have twice as much tax revenue as Germany as a percentage of GDP. And NZ is not in the third position ( :lol: ).

That should be obvious.

Income/profit tax revenue alone is usually somewhere between 10% and 20% of GDP in developed countries.
#14705876
I'm sure the World Bank has been taken over by some reptilian overlords who wish to disrepute NZ and Austria for having tax revenues greater than other countries. :roll:
#14705885
The only curious thing is that you are complaining about them without any argument but with mere drama. "They do not match my misconceptions, so they must be wrong".

:roll:
#14705893
noemon wrote:VAT is not excluded from Tax revenue which is what the list is, it is excluded from the total tax rate which is another list in the same website.

Estonia does not have corporate taxes at all:


No they are not but they can produce flawed statistics you know. Indeed Estonia has no corporate tax rate and it does function durring the distribution. So basically if you reinvest in your business then your tax rate is 0 or do some other interesting stuff that should not be said on the interwebz 8)

Then i still don't understand that 1 percent.
#14705976
Wiki's version.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... age_of_GDP



Country

Tax as % of GDP[1]


Afghanistan 6.4
Albania 22.9
Algeria 7.7
Angola 5.7
Argentina 37.2
Armenia 22.0
Australia 25.8
Austria 43.4
Azerbaijan 17.8
Bahamas, The 18.7
Bahrain 4.8
Bangladesh 8.5
Barbados 32.6
Belarus 24.2
Belgium 45.4[citation needed]
Belize 21.6
Benin 15.4
Bhutan 10.7
Bolivia 27.0
Bosnia and Herzegovina 41.2
Botswana 35.2
Brazil 34.4
Bulgaria 34.4
Burkina Faso 11.5
Burma 4.9
Burundi 17.4
Cambodia 8.0
Cameroon 18.2
Canada 32.2
Cape Verde 23.0
Chad 4.2
Chile 21.0
China[2][3] 22.0
Colombia 16.1
Comoros 12.0
Congo, Republic of 5.9
Costa Rica 21.0
Côte d'Ivoire 15.3
Croatia 26.6
Cuba 44.8
Cyprus 39.2
Czech Republic 36.3
Denmark 49.0
Djibouti 20.0
Dominica 30.3
Dominican Republic 12.0
Congo, Democratic Republic of 13.2
Ecuador 13.2
Egypt 15.8
El Salvador 13.3
Equatorial Guinea 1.7
Estonia 32.3
Ethiopia 11.6
European Union[4] 35.7
Fiji 21.8
Finland 43.6
France 44.6
Gabon 10.3
Gambia 18.9
Georgia 21.7
Germany 40.6
Ghana 20.8
Greece 30.0
Guatemala 11.9
Guinea 8.2
Guinea-Bissau 11.5
Guyana 31.9
Haiti 9.4
Honduras 15.6
Hong Kong 13.0
Hungary 39.1
Iceland 40.4
India 17.7
Indonesia 12.0
Iran 6.1
Ireland 30.8
Israel 36.8
Italy 43.5
Jamaica 27.2
Japan 28.3
Jordan 21.1
Kazakhstan 26.8
Kenya 18.4
Kiribati 20.7
Korea, South 26.8
Kuwait 1.5
Kyrgyzstan 21.4
Laos 10.8
Latvia 30.4
Lebanon 14.4
Lesotho 42.9
Liberia 13.2
Libya 2.7
Lithuania 20.9
Luxembourg 36.5
Macau, China 20.1
Macedonia 29.3
Madagascar 10.7
Malawi 20.7
Malaysia 15.5
Maldives 20.5
Mali 15.3
Malta 35.2
Mauritania 15.4
Mauritius 19.0
Mexico 19.7
Federated States of Micronesia 12.3
Moldova 33.8
Mongolia 33.8
Montenegro 28.0
Morocco 22.3
Mozambique 13.4
Namibia 28.8
Nepal 10.9
Netherlands 39.8
New Zealand 34.5
Nicaragua 17.8
Niger 11.0
Nigeria 6.1
Norway 43.6
OECD[5] 34.8
Oman 2.0
Pakistan 12.0
Panama 10.6
Papua New Guinea 24.5
Paraguay 12.0
Peru 18
Philippines 14.4
Poland 33.8
Portugal 37.0
Qatar 2.2
Taiwan 12.4
Romania 28.1
Russia 19.5
Rwanda 14.1
Saint Lucia 23.1
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 26.5
Samoa 25.5
São Tomé and Príncipe 17.4
Saudi Arabia 5.3
Senegal 19.2
Serbia 34.1
Seychelles 32.0
Sierra Leone 10.5
Singapore 14.2
Slovakia 29.5
Slovenia 39.3
Solomon Islands 24.7
South Africa 26.9
Spain 37.3
Sri Lanka 11.6
Sudan 6.3
Suriname 22.1
Swaziland 39.8
Sweden 45.8
Switzerland 29.4
Syria 10.7
Tajikistan 16.5
Tanzania 12.0
Thailand 17.0
Togo 15.5
Tonga 27.0
Trinidad and Tobago 28.0
Tunisia 14.9
Turkey 32.5
Turkmenistan 20.2
Uganda 12.6
Ukraine 28.1
United Arab Emirates 1.4
United Kingdom 39.0
United States 26.9
Uruguay 23.1
Uzbekistan 21.0
Vanuatu 17.8
Venezuela 25.0
Vietnam 13.8
Yemen 7.1
Zambia 16.1
Zimbabwe 27.2
#14705983
Wiki's version is the version of some editor with figures unsourced and un-cited.

I first checked wiki's version and saw that obvious problem before I checked the world banks which is far more reliable.
#14706019
More of the World Bank's caveats for that dataset:

Limitations and Exceptions: For most countries central government finance data have been consolidated into one account, but for others only budgetary central government accounts are available. Countries reporting budgetary data are noted in the country metadata. Because budgetary accounts may not include all central government units (such as social security funds), they usually provide an incomplete picture. In federal states the central government accounts provide an incomplete view of total public finance. Data on government revenue and expense are collected by the IMF through questionnaires to member countries and by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Despite IMF efforts to standardize data collection, statistics are often incomplete, untimely, and not comparable across countries.

So as well as difference between 'insurance' and true tax, you have differences betwen national, state and local tax collection.

OECD 2014 data, for tax at all levels of government:

Denmark 50.9
France 45.2
Belgium 44.7
Finland 43.9
Italy 43.6
Austria 43.0
Sweden 42.7
Norway 39.1
Iceland 38.7
Hungary 38.5
Luxembourg 37.8
Slovenia 36.6
Germany 36.1
Greece 35.9
Portugal 34.4
Czech Republic 33.5
Spain 33.2
Estonia 32.9
United Kingdom 32.6
New Zealand 32.4
Israel 31.1
Slovak Republic 31.0
Canada 30.8
Ireland 29.9
Turkey 28.7
Switzerland 26.6
United States 26.0
Korea 24.6
Chile 19.8

https://data.oecd.org/tax/tax-revenue.htm
#14706049
OECD data certainly makes more sense.

Separating tax and social insurance based on how they are called in each country will always yield distorted results. I hadn't thought of the influence of structural differences - federal vs centralised - in the different countries, but that would go a long way in explaining the rest of the discrepancy in the World Bank data.
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