[chvid]

Exactly.

People forget that high levels of income tax in the western world is actually a fairly new thing.

Denmark for example introduces income tax withheld by the employer in 1970 (kildeskat).

Before that the situation looked much more like China today. And the size of the Danish public sector was much smaller.

[arghwhat]

Important elaboration: kildeskat ("source tax") changed when and how the income tax was collected, from being something done privately and retrospectively for the previous year, to being something your employer takes care of before paying you, thus increasing collection efficiency. It also significantly simplified calculation.

It did not introduce the concept nor change the size of income tax, which some might interpret the comment as stating.

[benj111]

Britain introduced an income tax in 1842 I believe. It was supposed to be temporary.

[cmdkeen]

1799 originally, as a temporary tax to help pay for the Napoleonic Wars.

[benj111]

Yes but that time it actually was introduced temporarily. The date I gave was when it was introduced permanently.

[arghwhat]

Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.

[dsfyu404ed]

I hope at some point people smarten up and realize that "temporary" government revenue streams are never really temporary.

[xmly]

Finally, someone knows the history and common sense.

The income tax history is really short. Even in US, the income tax was not significant until recent 50-70years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Federal,_State,_and_Local...

The China economy is behind US probably 20-30 years. Its GDP is large because its population is huge.

Why the Economist publishes this kind of low-level article?

[mijamo]

Based on your graph the income tax became significant in 1943, which was 75 years ago. It was significant in France 30 years before that and in Germany and the UK 100 years before that.

This is actually pretty old and much earlier in development than what China is at right now.