Germany’s tax burden second-highest among rich countries: OECD

Nassos DrakosGlobal Markets

You’re single with no kids and thinking about working in Germany? Move and your tax burden will be 15 percentage points higher than the average among rich-income countries, according to a new study.

Germany has the second-highest tax burden for single earners among high-income countries, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday.

The news has come amid a large budget surplus in Germany and no plans under the new coalition government to drastically change personal income taxes.

What the OECD found:

  • In its “Taxing Wages” report, the OECD calculated the “net personal average tax rate” (NPATR) to determine a country’s tax burden. The NPATR equals the sum of personal income tax plus social security contributions minus cash benefits as a percentage of gross earnings.
  • Single earners in Germany who have no children had the second-highest NPATR in the OECD at 39.9 percent.
  • Belgium took the top spot with a NPATR of 40.5 percent, while Chile had the lowest rate with 7 percent. The OECD average was 25.5 percent.
  • German earners whose spouse didn’t work and who had two children had an NPATR of 21.7 percent.
  • Turkey had the highest one-earner family NPATR at 25.9 percent, while one-earner families in Poland actually earned money from the government with a negative NPATR of -4.8. The OECD average for this category was 14 percent.

Source: dw.com