[KGIII]

Hmm... I'm not sure 'unmarried singles' equates to 'secind highest taxed in the world.' That's a rather small category? As a percent of GDP, it is pretty far down the list of the countries they include.

We here in the US enjoy very, very low taxation. What is strikingly odd, to me, is that many of my fellow citizens believe we are taxed at comparably high rates.

At any rate, I'm still not able to find anything that puts Germany at the top, even for corporate/business taxes. It looks like some of the Scandinavian countries are pretty find of taxation, though they do enjoy quite a few benefits from that system.

Edited to clear up some verbiage.

[rmoriz]

Sort the table. Germany is second.

[KGIII]

Yes, I see that. It's second in a very narrow category that I'm not sure equates to 'the entire world' when talking about general taxation. The OP didn't state that "German single people are taxed at the second highest rate in the entire world."

So, while it's interesting, that's not really the same as what the OP suggested.

[rmoriz]

It is, as I pointed out: Everyone starts as single, unmarried person with 0 children. It's the time in your life when you make the big decisions, take high risks, maybe get high returns.

1. If you cannot save enough money to buy a condo, you will probably run into financial problems once/if you marry and grow your family. It's easy as that. Having children ist one of the top reasons to become poor in Germany. You add additional costs and risks to your life. Sure you pay much less taxes then but you already have a tight income situation (child care is expensive).

2. In the US the usual wages in IT are much higher. Let's say 75-150.000. Minus 26% taxes. You can easily save a lot of money in 5-10 years if you live a modest lifestyle. Compound interest/index ETF savings plan. Simple math.

[jaclaz]

Hmmm, it is a completely different situation, normally in the US someone that is in IT also has a huge college/university debt that he/she should re-pay.

And besides - probably not so relevant when you are young and fit - somehow you have to consider the social assistance (healthcare before anything else) that Germany (or most EU countries) offers to their citizens (compared to the US provided ones, which is - I believe - 0 or nearly 0).

Before or later you won't probably be a single, unmarried person with 0 children, and I believe that "social" states such as Germany offer a number of advantages when it comes to children's costs, so a good "tactic" would be:

1) be born in Germany

2) study there (for free or almost free)

3) as soon as you are fit to earn a decent wage, emigrate somehow to the US getting a highly paid job in IT

4) stay there for ten years or so, living modestly so that you can maximize your savings

5) when the time comes for marriage, go back to Germany (hopefully in the meantime you will have enough experience as to find easily a well paid IT job there too)

6) get the "social" provisions and benefits that Germany offers you and your family (at the cost of a higher than US taxation level)

[rmoriz]

Yes. That's how I would do it, if I were 18-20 again. :(