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Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

bloomberg.com

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Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#91

Post by ekianjo »

alkonaut wrote: post #51
Retric wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% free sets up perverse incentives. The minimum subsidy is 70% and there are effective price controls. So the actual bill is often higher in the US for those with decent insurance.

> 100% free sets up perverse incentives. How is that? I realize 100% free is pretty rare (I have a usual out-of-pocket cost of around $20 for an ER visit for example) but what are the perverse incentives created by completely free healthcare? You mean that those who supply the healthcare are incentivized to give more expensive treatments, because the patient doesn't need to keep an eye on the bill? Shouldn't the buye…

Buyers are easily corrupted since there are few of them.

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#92

Post by unknown_apostle »

pjc50 wrote: post #73
unknown_apostle wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Flemish/Walloon stuff is a lot, but it doesn't stop there. France has similar problems with out of control government. Why not Australia? My occupation is on the list of wanted occupations?

Then you'll probably be OK. It's just that immigration is no longer welcome in general. Great place if you avoid the spiders and the bogans, though.

Well, we'll see whether they want us. I'll be visiting the country with my wife in a couple of weeks. Then I'll file the paperwork.

Btw I'm not frustrated in daily life ;-)

I've just started to believe that "happiness with high taxes" is a euphemism for an ever growing sense of entitlement that is (barely) being fulfilled. At least in Belgium and France.

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#93

Post by Thriptic »

VeejayRampay wrote: post #37
atemerev wrote: post #10

In other countries, taxes are complicated (no citation needed). There's income tax, but there are also social security payments, industry-specific taxes, etc. And you have to pay for your own education and healthcare! Danish tax is simple and all inclusive. It is around 50%, which is about the same as in US if all hidden obligatory payments are taken into account. But it is all inclusive: all education and healthcare…

Let's be serious here. I'm French, all for high taxes and all but please let's not delude ourselves thinking that American people pay "around 50%" taxes. As soon as you have enough money to afford it, you'll pay a tax lawyer to get that down to about 15% or something, thanks to a bajillion hidden tax system loopholes allowing the rich to get an advantage on the less fortunate. And even if you take into account the pr…

> Let's be serious here. I'm French, all for high taxes and all but please let's not delude ourselves thinking that American people pay "around 50%" taxes. As soon as you have enough money to afford it, you'll pay a tax lawyer to get that down to about 15% or something, thanks to a bajillion hidden tax system loopholes allowing the rich to get an advantage on the less fortunate.

This is false. Once you account for all the various levels of taxation (federal, state, local), there is no possible way wealthy people have a tax rate around 15%.

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#94

Post by scurvy »

tobltobs wrote: post #63
EJTH wrote: post #32

As a dane I can tell you the headline is a lie, almost everyone I know thinks that we pay way too much for the mediocre services we get.

Even people in Switzerland think the same, although they have low taxes and top notch public services.

It's pretty hard to make sweeping statements about Swiss sentiment considering what a fractured state it is politically.

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#95

Post by crdoconnor »

alkonaut wrote: post #77
crdoconnor wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You are assuming that the chance of being elected to public office increases with the amount of money you can spend on trying. That's cute. Clearly politicians solicit campaign contributions just for the hell of it.

If Denmark is like Sweden (It has a very similar political system, as do all the Nordic countries) then donations usually aren't solicited by politicians but by parties. Individual politicians rarely campaign at all. Obviously parties can be indebted to donors just like individual politicians - but the result at least superficially seems to be lot less shady dealings since buying something off a major party will take…

>Obviously parties can be indebted to donors just like individual politicians

Obviously. AND given that the proposal is obviously a hand out to the wealthy and it came at a political cost to the prime minister (in decreased popularity)...

I mean, you can put two and two together yourself right?

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#96

Post by spoonie »

pjc50 wrote: post #62
atemerev wrote: post #10

In other countries, taxes are complicated (no citation needed). There's income tax, but there are also social security payments, industry-specific taxes, etc. And you have to pay for your own education and healthcare! Danish tax is simple and all inclusive. It is around 50%, which is about the same as in US if all hidden obligatory payments are taken into account. But it is all inclusive: all education and healthcare…

British system: tax and social security deducted by employer. Council sends you an annual bill vaguely related to the value of your home, paid over 10 months. Healthcare free at the point of use, apart from the £7 prescription charge in England. I was in my mid-30s before I had to file a tax return, and that's only because I'd set up a limited company. The Inland Revenue (HMRC) can be nasty, but nowhere near as nasty…

Small correction, the council (municipal government) charges the occupant of the house, not the owner. As a renter in London I was paying council tax.

Edit: The biggest downside to the UK system is there isn't an obvious end of year review, so many people don't look at their taxes. I wonder how many people are overcharged?

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#97

Post by lostboys67 »

VeejayRampay wrote: post #37
atemerev wrote: post #10

In other countries, taxes are complicated (no citation needed). There's income tax, but there are also social security payments, industry-specific taxes, etc. And you have to pay for your own education and healthcare! Danish tax is simple and all inclusive. It is around 50%, which is about the same as in US if all hidden obligatory payments are taken into account. But it is all inclusive: all education and healthcare…

Let's be serious here. I'm French, all for high taxes and all but please let's not delude ourselves thinking that American people pay "around 50%" taxes. As soon as you have enough money to afford it, you'll pay a tax lawyer to get that down to about 15% or something, thanks to a bajillion hidden tax system loopholes allowing the rich to get an advantage on the less fortunate. And even if you take into account the pr…

I think they where adding the cost of equivalent health care one guy I know who worked for citi bank in the usa was paying well over 15% just for his healthcare (his wife is a fed so that wasn't covering his family)

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#98

Post by lostboys67 »

rayiner wrote: post #57
humanrebar wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As soon as you have enough money to afford it, you'll pay a tax lawyer to get that down to about 15% or something You need a lot of money before that's an option. By that point, you have enough to be one of those citizen-of-the-world globe-trotting types with vacation homes that double as convenient tax shelters. That is to say, the American middle class pays quite a bit in taxes. Even the poor working class pay a…

Working poor also get the earned income tax credit which mostly offsets their payroll taxes.

Which is a subsidy for low wage employers

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#99

Post by [deleted] »

vidarh wrote: post #83
atemerev wrote: post #10

In other countries, taxes are complicated (no citation needed). There's income tax, but there are also social security payments, industry-specific taxes, etc. And you have to pay for your own education and healthcare! Danish tax is simple and all inclusive. It is around 50%, which is about the same as in US if all hidden obligatory payments are taken into account. But it is all inclusive: all education and healthcare…

> It is around 50% No, it isn't. The total tax wedge under OECD definitions, which includes employer payroll taxes, the Danish income tax burden is on average around 38%. Excluding employers payroll taxes it's around 36%. For comparison, the "all in" number for the US is around 31%. The OECD average is 36%. The only OECD country that crosses the 50% mark is Belgium, which consistently is one of the highest tax countr…

[deleted]

Re: Most Danish voters oppose government plans to cut the top rate of income tax

#100

Post by vidarh »

azeirah wrote: post #18
hanspeter wrote: post #9

> Perhaps it's no coincidence then that their word for taxes, skat, also means “sweetheart”. The word "skat" means treasure . That's why we also use it as a word for our sweethearts.

Oh cool, we have the same word in Dutch, "schat".

You know any two of German + one of the Scandinavian languages + Dutch, you can often read the third pretty well if you apply some imagination - they're all very closely related.
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