ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704110019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
Nobody likes to pay taxes, and there's no making light of U.S. citizens' tax burden. But would you rather live in Hong Kong?
WHEN APRIL 15 nears, the grumbling becomes a roar: The dad-burn guv'mint takes too much of our hard-earned incomes.
Comparatively speaking, however, it isn't as bad as it may seem.
According to the Ernst and Young accounting firm, as reported recently in The Washington Post, taxpayers in most other developed countries carry a heavier income-tax burden, in addition to paying higher sales and gasoline taxes.
In the United States, married couples with a combined family income of $50,000 pay an average of 21 percent of it in income taxes to various levels of government - less than in Canada (53 percent), France (50 percent), Australia (48.5 percent), Italy (41 percent), Britain (40 percent), Switzerland or Germany (31 percent) and Japan (30 percent).
American married couples with a combined income of $100,000 pay an average of 34 percent in income taxes - lower than in France (56.8 percent), Germany or Canada (53 percent), Italy (51 percent), Australia (48.5 percent), Switzerland (46.5 percent), Japan (45 percent) and Britain (40 percent).
In both categories, the U.S. income-tax rates were higher than in Singapore, where a married couple with $50,000 income will pay 20 percent and a couple with $100,000 will pay 26 percent. The U.S. rates were also higher than in Hong Kong, where taxpayers in both categories pay an average of 15 percent.
The comparison took into account standard deductions, but not the fact that most other industrialized countries have more extensive governmental social programs. It did not include Social Security taxes, which are imposed separately in all countries in the comparison except Australia.
The lower rates assessed American taxpayers may be of small comfort to those now sweating over their 1040s. But if the bottom line comes up ``refund,'' perhaps it will be time to order take-out Chinese for a celebration.
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