Taxation/Addendum

The tax burden

(According to the OECD definition of tax revenues  % of GDP)

	Japan	Italy	France	Germany	United States	United Kingdom	OECD
1985	27.5	33.6	42.8	36.1	25.6	37.6	32.7
2007	27.9*	43.3	43.6	36.2	28.3	36.6	39.8*

^* 2006

(Source OECD revenue statistics (2008)[1])

The tax wedge

(Taxation as a percentage of total labour costs, 2008)

Japan	Italy	France	Germany	United States	United Kingdom
29.5	46.5	49.3	52	30.1	32.8

(Source: OECD Taxing Wages 2007/2008 [2]

The changing composition of taxation

(OECD averages, % of total tax receipts)

	1965	1985	2006
Personal income tax	30	30	25
Corporation income tax	9	8	11
Employees' social security contributions	6	7	9
Employers' social security contributions	10	13	15
Payroll tax	1	1	1
General consumption tax	14	16	19
Specific consumption taxes	24	16	11

(Source:OECD (2008) Revenue Statistics[3] )

High-earners' marginal tax rates

(marginal rates for employees earning 250% of average earnings - percent)

	Italy	France	Sweden	United States	United Kingdom
1981/2	13.5	22.5	44.0	27.6	12.5
2005/6	16.0	15.3	25.0	13.0	18.0

(Source: OECD Taxing Wages 2007/2008.2008 edition [4])