Andy Hall wrote:
On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 21:22:10 +0100, Capitol
wrote:



Andy Hall wrote:


Taxation in the U.S. is also much lower at around 25% vs. 35% in the
UK and even more elsewhere in Europe.


Are you sure about these figures? The Adam Smith institute quotes 38.5%
for the UK for 2005/5. I agree that the EU is higher. The US is more
difficult, as some states have state and federal income tax and various
rates of sales and property taxes, so it can depend very much on where
you live.

Regards
Capitol


This is an averaged figure, and I appreciate that the exact numbers in
the U.S. vary from state to state depending on the levels of sales,
property, local income and corporate tax.

The real point was that it is about 25% less in the U.S. That gives
people the freedom to spend a substantially greater proportion of
their income as they choose rather than letting the nanny state run
their lives for them.


I did a little bit of checking on the US, UK and Canada(nearer to the
EU). The relative tax freedom days are 31/5/05, 17/4/05 and 26/6/05. If
you add in the US healthcare costs(averaged) this equates to a
tax/healthcare freedom day of 8/6/05 in the US, which does reflect the
UK's lower cost/quality healthcare, but our total tax/healthcare costs
are lower per individual. Just still far too high. A better comparison
would be to compare government costs(other than military) in the UK and
the US. Anyone have the numbers?

Regards
Capitol