Britain has agreed to spend 0.7% (1 Viewer)

[KenHigg]

How do you UK'rs feel about this?

Link

 

[Ron_dK]

0.7% by 2013 ???
That's nothing compared to what we spend :
http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/cdi/_country/netherlands/
and we don't need a Geldorf to stimulate the people's enthusiasm,
we simply pay more tax than the Brits.

 

[KenHigg]

Interesting site rak, thks for the info...

 

[Rich]

we simply pay more tax than the Brits.

Not by choice you don't

 

[ColinEssex]

we simply pay more tax than the Brits.

depends what you call tax - just income tax or all the hidden taxes we have to pay as well

Col

 

[Ron_dK]

Not by choice you don't

Do we have any choice then ?

Strange thing is that everyone is discussing these high wages that
top managers earn or are supposed to earn, whereas the Dutch government privatizes a lot of governmential bodies like, the railways, the post, etc. The government is the only one who gains from this and taxes are raised each year. So who's greedy after all ??

depends what you call tax - just income tax or all the hidden taxes we have to pay as well

Well , I focussed on income tax, hence the link to that site.
Will find out thru the OECD what the total tax figures will be.

 

[Ron_dK]

Here are some interesting statistics :

http://ocde.p4.siteinternet.com/publications/doifiles/012005061T017.xls

Just note that the Netherlands was on rank 3 ( 2002) with regard to highest Income tax rate.

 

[KenHigg]

How can a person's disposable income be 103% of their gross? (Luxembourg)

 

[Ron_dK]

How can a person's disposable income be 103% of their gross? (Luxembourg)

That's because the OECD is using Excel to produce these figures in lieu of Access.
Always thought that Databases are much more reliable than spreadsheets.

 

[Rich]

Well that's odd, the UKers get to keep more of their income than the US

 

[Ron_dK]

How can a person's disposable income be 103% of their gross? (Luxembourg)

Good question Ken.
I think I figured it out. In most of the EU countries the government wanted to encourage children ( after 1945). So they invented the what we call Children's allowance.
This allowance is based on the number of children and your income.
In some countries ( like Luxembourg) this allowance is so high that your disposable income ( even after having paid income tax) raises to 90 or even 103 %.

 

[KenHigg]

Hum... So something like we have here which we call a deduction. Works kind of like:

1. Say you make $20,000 a year.
2. Say The income tax is 10%
3. This would mean you owe $2000 in tax
4. If you have a child, you are allowed to reduce your taxable income by say $1000.
5. This means you would only be taxed 10% of $19,000

Is this similar to what you are describing?

 

[Ron_dK]

Yes, but will some differences :

1. Say you make € 20,000 a year.
2. Say The income tax is 38%
3. You have to pay € 7600 in tax
4. Pay that tax on a monthly basis ( income tax)
5. If you have one child, you will receive approx. €750 / year ( non-taxable)
6. Net income approx € 13150

This rule was valid till 2004, but with the additions of new countries to the EU
rules have changed.
Still in Luxembourg, they pay you high Child allowances ( and low income tax)
which may result in a very high net income related to the bruto income.