THE ART OF, UH, SIMPLIFICATION? The Gettysburg address has 269 words... the Declaration of Independence, 1,337 words... the Bible, 773,000. However, U.S. tax law has ballooned from a relatively “slender” 11,400 words in 1913, to a seam-busting 7 million words today!
10 Highest-Taxing Countries in the World:*
#1 Sweden (Highest)
#2 Denmark
#3 Finland
#4 Belgium
#5 France
#6 Austria
#7 Norway
#8 Italy
#9 Luxembourg
#10 Netherlands
10 Lowest-Taxing Countries in the World:*
#1 Mexico (Lowest)
#2 Korea
#3 Japan
#4 Turkey
#5 United States
#6 Australia
#7 Greece
#8 Ireland
#9 Iceland
#10 Spain
* Ranked according to collection of public revenue from taxes and social security contributions as percentage of the gross domestic product.
PAYDAY!
In the UK, over 9 million tax returns were issued, but only 7.5 million made the 31 January 2002 deadline. Result? A cash windfall of about £160 million for the Treasury!
ASTRONOMICAL!
The United States’ taxing authority, the Internal Revenue Service, sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions every year. Lay them end-to-end and they’d encircle the earth 28 times!
