[humanrebar]

There's a ~15% payroll tax (income tax by another name) for social security and medicare. The bulk of the median household's remaining income will be taxed at 15%. There's some fudging for deductions, I suppose, but that's also leaving out state and local income taxes.

The point was that a 24% VAT doesn't mean much to me when other major taxes are left unmentioned. It actually sounds like a great deal if income and property taxes are only nominal.

EDIT: You're likely neglecting to include both halves of your payroll taxes.