Hi Boidhre,

Luckily for me I haven't received those voice messages yet.

Well, in keeping with the topic of the thread you may find this interesting reading. I found it two days ago.

http://www.dailypaul.com/335548/income- ... -you-think

Btw when I first read that I thought he was complaining about having to pay 9% of his gross income as tax, to which I thought Boo hoo you lucky sod!, this year I'm paying about 50%)

To correct an error in that article, the British chancellor has not abolished the annual tax return, he has said the paper version of it will be abolished and it must be done online (which is currently a choice). I've not looked at the details but I wouldn't welcome that announcement with unbridled joy as previous reforms of electronicisation to the tax system for businesses have meant one has to use various complicated formats which can require purchase of expensive accountancy software, whereas before one could submit paper accounts.

(Btw when I first read that I thought he was complaining about having to pay 9% of his gross income as tax, to which I thought Boo hoo you lucky sod!, this year I'm paying about 50%)

Well the highest rate is only 45% and that only kicks in at £150,000, though the 40% rate kicks in at about £40,000 which seems to mean the really big earners are getting away with murder.

But the real problem is that this is only income tax. In addition we pay 25% VAT on almost everything, there's a huge slew of very high excise duties on petrol and alcohol, there's the whopping council tax, there's stamp tax on house sales, inheritance tax, air passenger tax, etc etc etc etc etc. Even the BBC licence fee amounts to a tax. It is therefore closer to the truth to say that, except for those lucky enough "earn" enough to shave off a surplus that can go under the mattress, we all pay 100% tax. Poor sods!

In Finland most regular income earners don't have to file anything. Everyone gets a prefilled return, and if there is nothing to add, nothing needs to be done. I believe this covers majority of people.

In Finland the TV licence was recently changed to YLE-tax (YLE = Finnish equivalent of BBC). Everyone pays it, regardless of whether you watch TV or not.

Some years ago, they passed some anti-spam laws, and the amount of junk calls seemed to have dropped.

In Sweden, families argue about taxes over dinner, or maybe it's just my family?

I've yet to meet a nationality that doesn't like to complain about taxes. They're either too low on someone or too high on them.