[tajen]

... and API copyright would give an excellent commercial advantage to US companies over Europe, since they have more startups than we have. On the other hand, my government (France) doesn't do much to help startups [1][2], so it's only fair that we get invaded by talented foreign companies.

[1] For €1000 sold to a customer, the employee gets a purchasing power of less than €300, even in the absence of expenses and stakeholder dividends, because our VAT is 20%, mandatory contributions 46%, income tax 10-15%, land tax 5-10%, and laws are so circumvoluted that the tax accountant takes 45€ per paysheet per employee and charge about 2000€ yearly to the company. And the founder gets to spend >10% of his time on the phone with administrations or filling forms. I know the IRS of USA isn't much better, but I've lived in Australia and administrations make a difference on CEO time.

[2] I'm aware of that the French government provides benefits for startups like CRI (Crédit Impot Recherche), which basically funds the PhDs you hire, but it wastes paperwork pumping money from companies into companies, requires a person to manage the grant, and isn't socially fair since it advantages those with a PhD.

I could always blame TTIP agreements for advantaging Americans, but we, French people, tackle down our own companies on a massive scale.

French people, please don't answer "Hey man the CCI can help you for your paperwork if you fill in this form and post it to this address and fill the file they return and the RSI will take a levy of 0,015% for training (truth) and ... form ... and ... paper ... document... and... minitax... organisme social... excess... deductible for SMEs if you tick the box 5UV and ..." Please. I just wanted to hire and code, and the Australian PAYG paysheet is frigging awesome.

[markvdb]

Well, you could always emigrate to Belgium: 33.99% corporate income tax, 37.84% social security contributions, 53.5% personal income tax most labour income above a cleaner's wage, 21% VAT, 10% real estate sales tax, 25% dividend tax, spectacular inheritance tax, combined with far too complex rules and regulations.

That's for your regular, main job. Side job income is burdened with taxes and rules more heavily...

[Joeri]

All of those carry caveats though. The effective corporate tax rate is 23.4% due to the various deductions, and the bigger you are the lower the percentage (which I find really unfair to small business, but it is the way it is). That personal income tax also includes county taxes, and you can choose to live somewhere that those taxes are near zero, so it can go down a lot depending on where you live. 21% VAT is pretty much standard across the EU anyway. And the inheritance tax in flanders is 9% for everything below 250.000 euro if you're in direct line of succession, high but not spectacular. Also, very low property taxes. Typically capital isn't taxed, only income is (from labor or capital). That's why despite such high rates of taxation there is a lot of capital in Belgium, because what you get (after taxes) you mostly can keep.

But I would agree labor and small business are taxed too much. They need to do something about that (and not just raise VAT like they're talking about, which is again basically taxing labor).

[rtpg]

Where is your 46% coming from? Also, you might grossly underestimate how much of an absolute mess American taxes are to deal with. If you're complaining about paying your accountant 2000 euros a year...

[sitkack]

Taxes are in the same ballpark for all western countries. The real burden isn't the financial load, it is the complexity. I had a dream that my US state could take over all forms of taxation and have a single payer system (ha!) Business, personal, income, property, federal, all of it, one form, filed electronically and done by the state. Done.

[tajen]

Are you asking what the 46% contributes to, or a source? It contributes to health/unemployment/poverty/old-age insurances and pensions. The source is most websites about LLCs ("SAS/SARL") in France, e.g. https://www.apce.com/pid811/cotisations-sociales.html?pid=81... - the first cell of the second table is worth a read, for the laugh.