> You pay taxes that are not much higher than in the US and actually get things in return
This is amazing. (Let's disregard the two countries' differences in population sizes, demographics, debt, and military budgets.) A self-employed person in the US tends to lose between 40 and 50% of income to triple-taxes (depending on federal, state, and local levels), self-employment tax, and the need to buy expensive health insurance. What is the range of Norwegian tax rates under similar circumstances? Does Norway have a high consumption or sales tax rate?
Don't know about Norway, but here in New Zealand there is a personal income tax with progressive rates from 17.5% to 33%, with an additional ~1.5% ACC levy (essentially accident insurance). There's also 15% flat-rate GST (a value-added tax) applied to everything at point of sale.
Councils also charge rates for local road, service and facility management based on land and improvement value, this works out to around $1000-$2000 per year for a family-size house. This is simply invoiced to the home owner.
There are limited rebates for low-income people, especially families.
This covers healthcare - both emergency and elective (though there are waiting lists for elective procedures), education at pre-univeristy levels (though schools do ask for donations because the funding is low after decades of cuts), road maintenance, public transport subsidies, unemployment and sickness benefits, armed forces and various other things.
All this is deducted as I earn, I haven't filed a tex return since I was self employed 8 years ago. As a self-employed contractor I could claim business expenses against income and then paid the personal income tax on the remainder. I did not have an accountant for this, though I have accounting training.
Incorporated companies pay a flat 28% tax, though there are some company types where the shareholders simply pay personal tax on dividends. There's no requirement for a company to be registered or incorporated though, simply pay personal tax on any profits.
Also we don't have any capital gains tax, stamp duty, or pretty much any other sort of tax, other than import duties.
Everywhere overseas looks so complex from this perspective.
Self-employment tax? I get a self-employment tax cut. (Though recently the tax service has been complaining it's losing too much revenue due to the rising popularity of self-empoyment, so that cut might be on the way out.) I believe my actual income taxes over 2013 amounted to about 10%, which is distressingly low. I don't mind paying a bit more than that.
This is in Netherland, by the way. We also have sales tax that ranges from 6% for necessities (food, books) to 21% for luxuries. My health insurance costs about EUR 100 per month.
This is amazing. (Let's disregard the two countries' differences in population sizes, demographics, debt, and military budgets.) A self-employed person in the US tends to lose between 40 and 50% of income to triple-taxes (depending on federal, state, and local levels), self-employment tax, and the need to buy expensive health insurance. What is the range of Norwegian tax rates under similar circumstances? Does Norway have a high consumption or sales tax rate?