Only two things are certain in life

"Nothing is certain except death and taxes" A famous quote from Benjamin Franklin. It's a bit simplistic of course but otherwise some 30 percent of people won't understand this. 

It's also not exactly what he said, back in 1789.

There's this myth going around that the Dutch pay the highest tax rate in the world. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that bit of propaganda is just not true.

Above chart shows how the people with the highest incomes are taxed. By far most Dutch people don't make more than some €70,000 a year, so they will never be taxed that 'More than 50%!'.

===============================================================

Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

A donation (click) is much appreciated:

===============================================================

There are more taxes than just income tax. And every country has a different way of spending all that tax money. Some countries spend more on subsidies for the weapons industry and financial support for billionaires in Big Tech, Big Agro and Big Oil. While other countries put more emphasis on Healthcare and Education than on giving 'the elite' more money and power.

The difference can maybe be attributed to the USA being a capitalist plutocrasy and the Netherlands being a social democracy. 

What do you think your government spends most of your tax money on?

Here's where the citizen's tax money goes to in The Netherlands. Here's the USA for comparison. 

Both countries spend a lot on 'defense' (the arms industry) but where the Dutch money for a big part goes to healthcare and education, a big sum of American tax dollars goes to paying of government debt. 

That's of course quite simplistic because there's far more to it than that. 

If you want to know more about the Dutch (income) tax system, here's expat David Wen with a nice breakdown:

==========================

In Facebook zijn niet alle plaatjes te zien (of te horen) en links in mijn artikelen niet aan te klikken. Klik daarom op de oorspronkelijke link. http://terrebel.blogspot.nl/ Veel leesplezier! O ja, fans kunnen mijn Fan pagina leuk vinden. https://www.facebook.com/TerrebelAuthortainer
Over links gesproken: ja, dat ben ik maar voor verdieping staat er ook een aantal in mijn stukjes. Heb daar wat moeite voor genomen dus stel het op prijs als u de moeite neemt er op te klikken om de betreffende artikelen, onderzoeken en filmpjes te bekijken.

Heeft u na het lezen van dit blogstuk iets geleerd, wat gelachen of heeft het u aan het denken gezet, overweegt u dan een donatie voor de tijd en moeite die ik er in steek.

Meer lezen? Mijn verhalenbundels