[danielbln]

Do people not research the tax rate before moving to Germany? It comes with free roads, education and health care, by the way. Not saying we shouldn't get more out of it, mind you, but it's not like the taxes turn into thin air. And Berlin is a bit special in that its administration is kind of bad and always had been. You get the live and let live attitude and a lot less sticks up people's butts (compared to say southern Germany), but it also does feel at times like you're not getting as much out of the taxes as you should.

The Rundfunkbeitrag can eat a bag of dicks though, zero argument there.

[vidarh]

Germany is one of the highest taxed countries in Europe, and I'm not aware of it having particularly higher welfare than e.g the Nordics where tax levels are lower. I'm generally skeptical to people complaining about taxes, but Germany and Belgium (which is the only one I'm aware of more expensive than Germany) appear to be outliers.

[expertentipp]

Yeah my eyes are bulging every time I find a job posting based in Brussels or Antwerp and then quickly run some gross-net simulations online. Whait... what?! Over 50% monthly on contributions and taxes? What the fucking fuck?! Employees of EU and other institutions have generous exempts and privileges, otherwise I have no idea what might be the motivation of a person employed in Belgium.

[vidarh]

Looking at the OECD data, one thing that is striking is that Belgium "rejoins the pack" if you look at the tax burden for a two-parent single-earner family.

Looking at the list (OECD Taxing Wages), I'm going to hazard a guess that it's a cultural/religious thing - it looks like the drop in the average tax rate as a proportion of household income for a single-earner vs. the same income for a single person is far greater in countries with a significant proportion of Catholics.

[johngladtj]

If you're counting healthcare, then you should add the health insurance to the taxes too.

That's brings it up above 50%

[expertentipp]

I indeed did some net-gross calculations online but the last glimmer of hope was saying "people live there it cannot be that bad, can it?".

[danielbln]

It depends, there is no student loan debt, no healthcare debt, and you won't be homeless if shit hits the fan, so we got that going over what's happening across the pond. On the flip side, you get robbed a bit at the salary takeout.

It would be nice if it wasn't mostly middle class that gets fleeced though, and it would also lovely if more money would flow into keeping infrastructure intact, like schools. But again, that's Berlin for ya.

[pb7]

It appears that Germany has more homeless per capita than the US.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_...

[Probiotic6081]

There are problems with the Rundfunkbeitrag, such as that pensions for retirees from high positions are too high but it provides free* access to high quality and verified news and a diverse cultural and informational program. There is a strong argument this important public service should be funded independently from tax money.