All Engines Go NEWS

There is no “yearly income tax” in my country, because you pay tax on every salary you receive and every other income you earn. Everything is taxed. Then, from the salary you additionally pay the obligatory pension and health insurance. That is automatically calculated before you get your pay, of course. In this way, the net salary is just over half of the gross salary. Through taxes and mandatory insurance contributions, the state thus gets about half of everything you earn. (Pensions, on the other hand, are about half the salary you received while working.) And, as I explained, of what you have left over from your salary, every time you buy any product or pay for any service, you pay extra every time 25% VAT, which is included in the price in advance, but the invoice shows how much you paid for the product or service, and how much VAT. There are also (rare) exceptions to which tax rates of 13% and 5% apply.

Avoiding taxation by not issuing an invoice (even for buying a newspaper at a kiosk) is punishable by law. This is often and thoroughly controlled.

Oh, I forgot to mention another interesting point regarding online ordering. When I order, for example, from Amazon.de the price I see includes German VAT (19%). Since the VAT in my country is much higher, the price I will pay will be automatically increased by the difference between the two amounts. This Amazon.de states below the price of each product: "Prices for items sold by Amazon include VAT. Depending on your delivery address, VAT may vary at Checkout."


--------------
May I suggest that this money talk be moved to another (separate), more appropriate topic? I don't think it really has a place with cheerful Thomas & Friends characters, cartoons and models...