I just read on msnbc.com that Qatar has no taxes due to the fact that its profits in oil make them unnecessary. I have heard that Kuwait is the same, there are no taxes.
So, in the interest of the ever present taxation debate, what all countries have no taxes. Assuming there are only 2 or 3, what countries have taxation rates below 10%?
Are you referring only to the national tax rate (like our federal tax rate), or do you care about the cumulative effect of state, sales, VAT, etc. taxes?
That’s only the goods and services tax. When you purchase some items, you are charged an extra 7% on top of the original price. I am unsure of how the government determines which items are taxed or not.
The income tax for Canada is fairly high, especially compared to the US.
Peanuthead is well named if he really believes there is no IT in Puerto Rico. A resident of PR does not, indeed, pay US federal tax, but he sure pays island taxes and at a fairly stiff rate, I think.
Re: Alaska; they still pay income tax, though, on the federal level. There are plenty of states w/ no state income tax, and some with no state sales tax – but these are pittances compared with the federal income tax.
I’ve heard about the Alaska oil check thing, too…sounds pretty cool to me.
I believe (istara will correct me if I’m wrong) that the United Arab Emirates have a 0% income tax rate. AFAIK, all government funding is from oil and import/export revenues.
Outside your scope, but low all the same, Hong Kong is a flat 15%. And they have “socialized medicine”, too.
I misread the chart for the taxes so it won’t be as bad as I had first mentioned. If my calculations are correct the total federal tax percentage should be ~23.8% for income > $104,648.
The provincial taxes will be less than the maximum percentages as well.
All the Middle East states with big oil money and small populations have little to no income tax. Saudi Arabia, which doesn’t permit censuses but is very sparsely populated, has a 2.5% personal income tax rate. The lowest earning sector of Kuwait’s population pays 5%. The lowest sector in Oman pays nothing in taxes, and the richest only pays 7.5%. The range in Qatar is 0 to 35%, which is about the same as Tunisia’s tax scheme. Bahrain’s has no personal income tax at all.
Actually, many Hong Kong workers don’t pay tax on their salaries, and some can pay as little as two percent on chargeable income. Check out the Salaries Tax and Personal Assessment section at the Inland Revenue Department’s web site, which lists tax rates for the last seven years.
Note that these rates apply to income above allowances and deductions. These include the first HK$108,000 of a year’s salary going tax-free as a basic allowance for unmarried people. (Link: Allowances.)