Wait, is the tax rate in East Europe EU members the same as those in the West?
Also, 19% VAT is ridiculous. You even exceeded my 3rd World shithole's 12%. Do you have VAT-exempt goods?
Unfortunately, Vat in the EU is completely independent of the location. There are exempt goods and goods with low vat rates. For instance, baby products are usually taxed very little. At the same time, alcohol and tobacco are taxed as high as possible, sometimes there are even additional taxes added to make them even more expensive. Same thing with gasoline.
https://ec.europa.eu/ireland/sites/ireland/files/vat_rates_2014.pngJust for your guys reference, when I worked in Silicon Valley either 43% or 47% of my paycheck was taken out before I got it, and I was one of the few people who didn't have a 401k or whatever. Gasoline costs quite a bit more there than almost anywhere else in the country, as do electricity, water, etc. Since I had no interest in owning property in that shit-hole I rented the cheapest apartment I could find, and I always switch apartments within several weeks of switching jobs.
I think my friend who bought a place down there pays something like $40,000 per year in taxes for the privilege of living in his own house. And he gets exercise dodging the human feces and drug needles which litter the streets.
It's the same in the EU, at least when it comes to your paycheck being cut in half. You have to pay income tax, which usually is around 20% and then health insurance, pension, and some other small things that add up to 40%. The pension fund is one of the greatest scams by the government because it doesn't work. People who made it thought the population will be growing and there will be more people working and adding to the system every year. This could have worked in China, but most EU countries have declining populations, so the system is failing and generating losses that all taxpayers are covering.
