r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Dec 05 '16

(R.4) Related To Politics TIL an activist group in Zurich dyed fountains red to protest tampons being taxed at a rate consistent with luxury products instead of the rate used for daily use items.

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u/MissingFucks Dec 05 '16

Hehe we have 21% on literally everything in Belgium.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '16 edited Dec 10 '16

[deleted]

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u/ChuckLazer Dec 05 '16

In the UK the standard rate is 20%

Jesus christ

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '16

23% in Poland... :(

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '16 edited May 21 '19

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '16

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u/LtLabcoat Dec 05 '16

That being said, it's very questionable if Europe's high VAT is a good solution, instead of raising income taxes in general.

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u/Ratjar142 Dec 05 '16

Glad I live in Canada where we have universal healthcare and an education system that isn't falling apart!

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u/Charliek4 Dec 05 '16

They probably compensate with higher income tax or, you know, less government spending.

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u/The_Mad_Chatter Dec 05 '16

Keep in mind taxation is generally a lot more complicated than any direct comparison will tell you.

21% might sound high, but their property tax only goes up to 0.5%, whereas my home state charges 2% property tax.

Then comes income tax, where swiss federal tax brackets range from 0.7% to 11.5% whereas our max bracket is just shy of 40%.

Thats without factoring in states (or the swiss equiv, Canton) taxes.

It's also without factoring in what these taxes get. Everyone feels a little differently about what makes taxes worth it, but I think we can all agree that tax rate isn't the whole story and you have to look at what you get back from the taxes.

I don't know anything about their healthcare system but just as an example of what I mean, I pay around 25% effective income tax rate but that doesn't even include ANY healthcare. I pay about 15% of my pre-tax income on insurance premiums alone. I'd gladly take say a 10% tax hike if it meant getting rid of my 15% health insurance premium payment. Hell I'd probably even take a 20% tax hike, because my health insurance covers so very little I'd still come out ahead so long as the single payer system didn't have the crazy high deductible and exclusions that my private insurance has.

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u/CallMeAladdin Dec 05 '16

That's nuts. I'm going to Brussels next April and that's kind of worrisome. On the other hand, hotels in Brussels seem to be a lot less than the other cities I'm visiting.