# Comparing tax in different countries

Soon I will be graduating from my masters in AI. However since I was planning to go abroad I wanted to see how much worse or better taxation laws are compared to my own country (The Netherlands).

For starters we will compare with the eastern neighbours (Germany). Scale 3 has been removed because its not relevant for me:

NL from till %
1 € 0 € 19'982 36,55%
2 € 19'982 € 67'072 40,80%
4 € 67'072 € ∞ 52,00%
DE from till %
1 € 0 € 7'664 0%
2 € 7'665 € 52'153 15%
3 € 52'154 € 250'000 42%
4 € 250'001 € ∞ 45%

source. Just glancing at it and you see a rather big difference. However its even worse with Australia:

AU from till %
1 € 0 € 13'250 0%
2 € 13'250 € 26'934 9.7%
3 € 26'934 € 63'347 22.8%
3 € 63'347 € 130'995 30.1%
4 € 130'995 € ∞ 45%

source (Converted to euros)

So ok, say I earn 3500 euro's per month, which is an entirely reasonable assumption since I saw multiple government vaccancies with my skill set (or lower) for around that price and I asked a recruiter too who said around that (actually he low-balled me with 3'000-3'500, but I guess that's his job).

So the amount per year is: $3500 \times 12=42'000$,

The tax I would pay in the Netherlands then would be: $19'982\times0.3655+(42'000-19'982)\times0.408=16'286$ or $16'286/42'000= 39\%$ goes to taxes from my total income.

For Germany however $(42'000-7'664)\times0.15=5'150$ or $5'150/42'000=12\%$. That's quite a dramatic difference. On top of that the VAT is 2% lower in Germany so you'll have 2% more purchasing power.

So now to calculate for Australia.

$(26'934-13'250)\times0.097+(42'000-26'934)\times0.228=4'762$ or $4'762/42'000=11\%$ in taxes, Australia also has a lower VAT (just 10%). And the amount of money going to 'pensions' is a lot lower in Australia, rather than 25% (hard to find a right source on this) of the Netherlands only 9% goes to it, which is by the way redeemable as soon as you leave (source). Which is perfect, I just go visit family for a week and get a fat paycheck, because I didn't want to do pensions anyway in my twenties, I have other costs to worry about.