Sweden has highest taxes on labour in EU

Fresh figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, showed that labour taxes remained the major source of tax revenue in 2012.

 

Sweden, where the government has made significant tax cuts on labour, topped the charts for the highest taxes on labour at 58.6 percent.

 

This was over a percentage point higher than second-placed the Netherlands, which had 57.5 percent, followed by Austria at 57.4 percent and Germany at 56.6 percent. The EU average was 51.0 percent. 

 

Only in three EU countries, one of which was the UK, were the labour taxes below 40 percent.

 

The stats also measured tax-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratios across the EU, with Sweden at 44.2 percent ranking fourth, and one of only seven countries where the ratio was above 40 percent. 

 

Across the EU, the overall sum of taxes as a percentage of GDP reached 39.4 percent in 2012, although was 40.4 percent in the 18 countries using the euro currency.

 

Danes pay the highest level of tax in the EU, measured by the tax-to-GDP ratio, at 48.1 percent. Denmark was followed by Belgium and France, with fourth-placed Sweden closely followed by Finland and Italy. 

 

Lithuania has the distinction of paying the least tax in the EU with a take of 27.2 percent, followed by Bulgaria and Latvia on 27.9 percent.

 

In Sweden "implicit tax rate" on labour has declined from 43.8 percent in 2002 to 38.6 in 2012, and on capital, from 43.2 percent to 27.9 percent over the period. Taxes have also decreased on consumption, from 27 percent in 2002 to 26.5 percent in 2012.