France has 348 taxes, the UK has 90, and Germany only 60. We map all three tax systems and explore what drives tax complexity - and what the UK can learn.
What kind of framing is this? The number of taxes really doesn’t matter and it also makes sense for a country to have a lot of taxes in its books. Taxes can totally steer people into a desired direction and it makes sense for a country to have a lot of taxes. Not to finacne the government, but to make undesired stuff like cigarettes or alcohol. Maybe you could finance your country with VAT only, but that would also mean that cigarettes would be dirt cheap and that your citizens will die of cancer
We think it does. We usually focus on complexity within individual taxes, but “number of taxes” is also a sign of complexity. When you’re a company looking to do business, each tax means a new adviser, a new set of advice, and a new list of things you can and can’t do.
The article goes on, explaining the differences between two extremes withing the EU (France on the one end and Germany on the other). It’s not saying all taxes are bad, or a low tax burden is good - it is arguing why complex tax systems hurt business. I agree with you that expensive cigarettes increase the population their overall health, i have no reason to believe the author thinks different.
The point is that everyone who does any kind of business needs to be aware of the taxes that are important to that tiny corner of business. The more individual ones exist, the more complicated it gets and the easier it is for everyone in the system to make mistakes - and that includes tax offices.
For example: Germany has at least five different taxes for alkohol and alcoholic drinks. They include a tax for beer, one for sparkling wine and one for mixtures made from soft drinks and alcoholic drinks. Now you need someone to classify each beverage by category and maybe a lawsuit or two to figure out exactly which is which.
There is this sparkling drinks tax introduced to finance the Kaisers navy. Which really is stupid to have and maybe should be abolished
There is the “Alcopop” tax which totally managed to kill this category of drinks as intended
So yeah, a little bit mixed. And i kind of disagree that this is too complicated. If you’re a supermarket or some kiosk, your supplier will provide you with the necessary information about the product. The Schaumweinsteuer, Biersteuer and Alcopop-Steuer are taxed directly at the producer level. Yes, you may need to deal with the beer tax when operation a brewery, but that really is not that complicated.
What kind of framing is this? The number of taxes really doesn’t matter and it also makes sense for a country to have a lot of taxes in its books. Taxes can totally steer people into a desired direction and it makes sense for a country to have a lot of taxes. Not to finacne the government, but to make undesired stuff like cigarettes or alcohol. Maybe you could finance your country with VAT only, but that would also mean that cigarettes would be dirt cheap and that your citizens will die of cancer
From the article:
The article goes on, explaining the differences between two extremes withing the EU (France on the one end and Germany on the other). It’s not saying all taxes are bad, or a low tax burden is good - it is arguing why complex tax systems hurt business. I agree with you that expensive cigarettes increase the population their overall health, i have no reason to believe the author thinks different.
The point is that everyone who does any kind of business needs to be aware of the taxes that are important to that tiny corner of business. The more individual ones exist, the more complicated it gets and the easier it is for everyone in the system to make mistakes - and that includes tax offices. For example: Germany has at least five different taxes for alkohol and alcoholic drinks. They include a tax for beer, one for sparkling wine and one for mixtures made from soft drinks and alcoholic drinks. Now you need someone to classify each beverage by category and maybe a lawsuit or two to figure out exactly which is which.
That’s a perfect example:
So yeah, a little bit mixed. And i kind of disagree that this is too complicated. If you’re a supermarket or some kiosk, your supplier will provide you with the necessary information about the product. The Schaumweinsteuer, Biersteuer and Alcopop-Steuer are taxed directly at the producer level. Yes, you may need to deal with the beer tax when operation a brewery, but that really is not that complicated.