Where do these facts come from?

Each fact links to its source directly beneath it — a government page, a court record, a statute or a published history — and nothing is included without one. The collection was researched deliberately against those sources rather than lifted from other trivia lists, so a story you have seen elsewhere may read differently here because the record says something different.

Are the rates mentioned in these facts current?

Treat a rate inside a story as history, not a lookup. The year a country introduced its GST does not change; a fact that quotes today’s rate can, and the stories here are not re-verified every time a rate moves. For the current standard and reduced rate in any country, use the tax rates table, which shows the date it was last confirmed against its source.

Which countries are covered?

36 countries have their own section, most opening with when and why the consumption tax was introduced, followed by the stories. The global oddities section covers the cases that belong to no single country. Coverage follows where a well-sourced story exists, so the largest economies are not always the ones with the most entries.

Can I use this page to work out my own tax?

No — it is the story behind the taxes, not a calculator. For numbers, the free tools cover GST, income tax, company tax, capital gains and more, each stating the rate and source it used. For your own transactions, Fin tracks the GST on each one as it lands so your position is always current. Everything here is general information, not advice.

How is this page different from the tax rates table?

This page explains how the taxes came to be — the elections, court cases and edge cases that shaped them. The rates table is the current numbers: standard and reduced rates, local names, and top income and company rates for every country Fin covers, with a verified date. Read this one for the why, that one for the what.

Fascinating tax facts from around the world

The weird, wonderful and entirely true history of the taxes you pay every day — every fact checked and sourced.

What is a consumption tax, anyway?

A consumption tax is a tax on spending rather than on income or wealth. The most common form worldwide is the Value-Added Tax (VAT), called the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and Singapore. VAT/GST is charged as a percentage added to the price of most goods and services at each stage of the supply chain, but it is designed so that only the final consumer ultimately bears the cost. Businesses collect the tax on their sales ("output tax") and reclaim the tax they paid on their purchases ("input tax"), remitting only the difference to the government. This makes it a tax on the "value added" at each step of production and distribution. It differs from a US-style retail sales tax, which is charged only once, at the final point of sale to the consumer. As of January 2025, 175 of the 193 UN member states use a VAT, including every OECD country except the United States, which relies instead on state and local retail sales taxes.

Governments favor consumption taxes like VAT/GST because they raise large, stable amounts of revenue while being relatively hard to evade. The credit-invoice VAT mechanism is partly self-policing: each business has an incentive to document the tax it paid so it can reclaim it, which creates a paper trail across the whole supply chain. Because the tax is collected in small slices at every stage rather than all at once at the till, the system is more resistant to evasion than a single-point retail sales tax. Consumption taxes also tax spending rather than work and saving, which many economists consider less distorting to economic growth than high income taxes, and they capture revenue from the informal and cash economy when those people spend. On average across the OECD, consumption taxes raise roughly 31% of total government revenue. The model proved so administratively attractive that it spread from one country in 1954 to over 170 in about 70 years.

Tax oddities from around the world

The strangest true stories in the history of tax.

The window tax left a literal mark on architecture

From 1696 to 1851, England and Wales taxed houses based on how many windows they had. To dodge the bill, owners bricked up windows, and many Georgian buildings still show these blocked-up openings today. King William III introduced it as a way to tax wealth without the controversy of an income tax.

A common myth claims the phrase 'daylight robbery' came from this tax, but there is no scholarly support for that link, and the phrase did not appear in print until 1916, over 60 years after the tax was repealed.

Source: Wikipedia (Window tax) ↗

VAT was invented in 1954 and now spans 175 countries

The modern Value-Added Tax was designed by French tax official Maurice Lauré and first implemented on 10 April 1954 in France's Ivory Coast colony, with France adopting it domestically in 1958. From that single starting point it spread across the globe: as of January 2025, 175 of the 193 UN member states use a VAT.

Its rapid spread was driven partly by the European Economic Community using VAT to harmonize trade among members, and by its self-policing input/output credit design.

Source: Wikipedia (Value-added tax) ↗

The United States is the only OECD country with no VAT

Every member of the OECD uses a Value-Added Tax except one: the United States. Instead of a national consumption tax, the US relies on a patchwork of state and local retail sales taxes, in place in 45 of the 50 states plus Washington, D.C. As a result, the US raises only about 16.8% of government revenue from consumption taxes, roughly half the OECD average of about 31%.

A US-style retail sales tax is charged once at the final sale, whereas VAT is collected in slices at every stage of the supply chain.

Source: OECD Consumption Tax Trends - United States ↗

Hungary charges the world's highest standard VAT at 27%

Hungary levies the highest standard VAT rate on Earth at 27%, the highest in the European Union. It applies reduced rates of 18% and 5% to certain goods such as basic foods, books and medicines. By comparison, the lowest standard VAT in Europe is Andorra's 4.5%.

Most countries' standard VAT rates fall between roughly 5% and 25%, making Hungary a notable outlier.

Source: Tax Foundation (2026 VAT Rates in Europe) ↗

New Zealand built the world's simplest GST

When New Zealand introduced its Goods and Services Tax on 1 October 1986, it deliberately applied a single rate to almost everything with virtually no exemptions, even taxing food, children's clothing and medical services at the full rate. This broad-base, single-rate design (10% initially, now 15%) is widely cited as the world's most efficient consumption tax.

This contrasts sharply with European VATs and the UK system, which carve out many zero-rated and reduced-rate categories and produce endless classification disputes.

Source: Wikipedia (Goods and Services Tax (New Zealand)) ↗

The 'tampon tax' movement has axed sales tax on period products worldwide

Because many countries taxed menstrual products as non-essential 'luxury' items while exempting other necessities, a global 'tampon tax' campaign emerged. Kenya became the first country to scrap VAT on pads and tampons in 2004, and at least 17 countries have since followed. The UK zero-rated sanitary products on 1 January 2021 after leaving the EU, and Australia ended its 10% tax on 1 January 2019 after an 18-year campaign.

Ireland is notable as the only EU country that has always had a zero rate on sanitary products, predating EU rules that long restricted such changes.

Source: Wikipedia (Tampon tax) ↗

Denmark's 'fat tax' lasted just over a year

In October 2011 Denmark became the first country in the world to impose a tax on saturated fat, levied on all foods with more than 2.3% saturated fat content at 16 Danish kroner per kilogram of saturated fat. It was repealed by the end of 2012 after complaints about higher prices and Danes crossing the border to Germany and Sweden to buy cheaper food.

Despite its short life, researchers estimated the tax cut saturated-fat intake and may have saved around 123 lives per year.

Source: Nature, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (The Danish tax on saturated fat: why it did not survive) ↗

Peter the Great taxed beards and issued 'beard tokens'

In 1698, Tsar Peter the Great imposed a beard tax in Russia to push his nobles toward a clean-shaven European look. Those who paid received a copper or silver 'beard token' to carry as proof, protecting them from police who were authorized to forcibly shave anyone caught without one. The fee was tiered, reaching as high as 100 rubles a year for wealthy nobles and merchants.

The clergy were exempt, and although the tax raised little revenue, it succeeded in nudging urban elites to adopt Western grooming and dress.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine ↗

A UK court had to rule whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit

Under UK VAT rules, cakes are zero-rated even when chocolate-covered, but chocolate-covered biscuits are standard-rated, so in 1991 McVitie's and the tax authority went to a tribunal over whether Jaffa Cakes were cakes or biscuits. McVitie's won by arguing, among other things, that cakes go hard when stale while biscuits go soft, so Jaffa Cakes remain zero-rated cakes.

McVitie's even baked a giant 12-inch Jaffa Cake for the tribunal to argue that size was irrelevant to its identity as a cake.

Source: GOV.UK (HMRC VAT Food manual, cakes vs biscuits) ↗

Ancient Rome taxed urine, giving us 'money does not smell'

Roman launderers used collected urine as a source of ammonia to clean and whiten woollen togas, and Emperor Vespasian (around 70 AD) taxed it. When his son Titus objected to the tax's distasteful source, Vespasian held up a gold coin and asked if it smelled, then declared the money came from urine, giving rise to the Latin phrase 'pecunia non olet' - 'money does not stink.'

Vespasian's name still survives in words for public urinals in Italy ('vespasiano') and France ('vespasienne').

Source: Wikipedia (Pecunia non olet) ↗

Tax stories, country by country

Australia

Introduced 2000. Introduced on 1 July 2000 by the Howard Coalition government at a flat 10%, the GST was the third attempt at an Australian consumption tax: Keating floated one at the 1985 Tax Summit (dropped after opposition) and Hewson built his 1991 "Fightback!" platform around it before losing the 1993 "unloseable election." Howard won the 1998 election calling it a "mandate for GST," and the revenue flows to the states.

A birthday cake helped sink a GST and an election: in 1993, Opposition Leader John Hewson couldn't say whether his proposed GST would make a birthday cake cheaper or dearer, fumbling about icing and candles on live TV.
The 3 March 1993 'birthday cake interview' with Mike Willesee on A Current Affair is widely blamed for Hewson losing the 'unloseable' federal election ten days later, on 13 March 1993; the GST didn't arrive until Howard finally legislated it seven years on.
Source: Wikipedia — Birthday cake interview ↗
Australia's GST has been frozen at 10% for over 25 years, partly because changing the rate legally requires the unanimous agreement of every state and territory plus both houses of federal Parliament.
Treasury states plainly that 'legislation requires that changes to the GST base or rate require unanimous agreement by all State and Territory governments, as well as both houses of the Australian Parliament' — a political straitjacket flowing from the 1999 Intergovernmental Agreement that has kept the rate untouched since 1 July 2000.
Source: Australian Treasury — Tax White Paper, At a glance ↗
Whether a frozen meal is taxed can hinge on a judge deciding what counts as a 'prepared meal' by common experience — and Simplot (maker of Birds Eye products) lost that argument in 2023.
In Simplot Australia v Commissioner of Taxation [2023] FCA 1115 the Federal Court ruled frozen vegetable-, rice- and pasta-based products were taxable 'prepared meals' or 'combination foods', applying 'common experience and common sense' about what an everyday meal is rather than the maker's own marketing.
Source: Grant Thornton — GST and food: Federal Court challenges the concept of a prepared meal ↗
A tub of Chobani yoghurt became taxable purely because it came with a separate pouch of cookie and white-chocolate pieces — making it a 'combination food'.
In a 16 June 2023 ruling the Administrative Appeals Tribunal sided with the Tax Commissioner that Chobani's Flip Strawberry Shortcake yoghurt, sold with baked cookie and white-chocolate bits, was a taxable combination food rather than GST-free plain yoghurt.
Source: HWL Ebsworth — Case alert: Tribunal finds yoghurt combination not GST-free ↗
Tampons were taxed at 10% as a non-essential item for nearly two decades while condoms, sunscreen and lubricant were GST-free — until the 'tampon tax' was finally scrapped in 2019.
After a campaign of nearly two decades, Commonwealth, state and territory treasurers unanimously agreed on 3 October 2018 to make menstrual products GST-free from 1 January 2019, giving up about $30 million a year in revenue.
Source: TIME — Australia Ditches Controversial 'Tampon Tax' After Outcry ↗
Australia's first income tax was a state tax: South Australia levied one in 1884, the Commonwealth followed in 1915 to pay for the First World War, and in 1942 Canberra took over income tax from the states altogether.
Wikipedia records that 'the first income tax in Australia was imposed in 1884 by South Australia', that federal income tax 'was first introduced in 1915, as a wartime measure', and that in 1942 the federal government took over the raising of all income tax 'to the exclusion of the States' — an arrangement that still stands.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in Australia ↗
In 1951 Australia's top marginal income tax rate was 75%, charged on incomes above £10,000; from 1955 until the mid-1980s it sat at 67%.
Wikipedia's rate history: 'the top marginal tax rate for incomes above £10,000 (equivalent to $425,000 today) was 75 per cent' in 1951, and 'From 1955 until the mid-1980s the top marginal tax rate was 67 per cent'. The year-by-year tables then show 60% in 1983–86, 49% in 1987–88 and 47% from 1990–91.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in Australia ↗
The Medicare levy began at 1% of taxable income when Medicare launched in February 1984; it has since doubled to 2%, the last step taken on 1 July 2014.
Wikipedia: 'When Medicare was introduced by the Hawke Labor government in February 1984, it was accompanied by a Medicare levy to help fund it', set 'at 1% of personal taxable income', and 'From 1 July 2014 the Medicare levy rose from 1.5% to 2.0%'.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in Australia ↗
Australian companies pay a flat 30% on profits — unless they are a 'base rate entity' with annual turnover up to $50 million, which pays 25%. Two rates, nothing in between.
Wikipedia: 'company tax is calculated at a flat rate of 30% (25% for small businesses)', with base rate entities having 'an annual turnover of $50 million giving a tax rate of 25%'. Income taxes are described as 'the most significant form of taxation in Australia'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Australia ↗
Capital gains tax arrived in Australia on 20 September 1985 — and anything bought before that day is still exempt as a 'pre-CGT asset', four decades on.
Wikipedia: 'A capital gains tax (CGT) was introduced in Australia on 20 September 1985'; 'Any asset acquired before 20 September 1985, known as a pre-CGT asset' is outside the tax. The family home is 'the most significant' of the exemptions.
Source: Wikipedia — Capital gains tax in Australia ↗
Since September 1999 individuals who hold an asset for at least a year pay CGT on only half the gain — a 50% discount that replaced cost-base indexation. Companies get no discount; super funds get one-third.
Wikipedia: the Howard government ended indexation in September 1999 and 'introduced a 50% discount on the capital gain for individual taxpayers'; 'If an asset is held for at least 1 year then any gain is first discounted by 50% for individual taxpayers'; 'The 50% CGT discount is not available to companies'; superannuation funds 'are entitled only to a 33% CGT discount'.
Source: Wikipedia — Capital gains tax in Australia ↗
Compulsory super started in 1992 at just 3% of wages. The Superannuation Guarantee reached 9% in 2002 and finally hit 12% on 1 July 2025 — a 33-year climb.
Wikipedia: legislation for the Superannuation Guarantee was passed by the Keating Government in 1992 with employer contributions set at '3% of the employees' income'; the rate rose 'to 9% by 2002' and 'the SG from 1 July 2025 onwards has been 12%'.
Source: Wikipedia — Superannuation in Australia ↗
Australians had $4.43 trillion invested in superannuation as of March 2026 — a pool built on a compulsory system that began with a 3% contribution in 1992.
Wikipedia cites $4.43 trillion in superannuation assets as of March 2026, up from $4.2 trillion at December 2024. Anyone born after 30 June 1964 has a preservation age of 60.
Source: Wikipedia — Superannuation in Australia ↗
Super contributions are taxed at a concessional 15% inside the fund — but anyone earning over $250,000 pays an extra 15% under Division 293, taking the rate to 30%.
Wikipedia: concessional contributions are taxed by the fund at a 'contributions tax' rate of 15%, and 'Individuals earning over $250,000 pay 30%' — the Division 293 tax.
Source: Wikipedia — Superannuation in Australia ↗
University was free in Australia from 1974 to 1988: the Whitlam government abolished fees in 1974, and they returned in 1989 with HECS, the income-contingent loan repaid through the tax system.
Wikipedia records that the Whitlam government 'abolished university fees' in 1974 and that the Hawke government set up the Higher Education Contribution Scheme in 1989; HELP later 'replaced' HECS, and HELP debts are indexed to the 'Consumer Price Index (CPI) on 1 June each year'.
Source: Wikipedia — Tertiary education fees in Australia ↗

New Zealand

Introduced 1986. GST was introduced on 1 October 1986 at 10% by Finance Minister Roger Douglas as a cornerstone of the Fourth Labour Government's free-market reforms known as "Rogernomics," replacing a complex, hard-to-administer wholesale sales tax (rates ranging from ~10% to 50%) with a simple broad-based consumption tax paired with offsetting income-tax cuts.

New Zealand's GST is one of the broadest consumption taxes in the world - it taxes almost everything, including food, with tax specialists noting that only Brazil runs a broader base.
Unlike most VAT systems that carve out food, books or medicine, NZ keeps exemptions to a tiny handful (financial services, residential rent, donated goods, precious metals), and Bloomberg Tax describes its GST as 'best in class,' noting only Brazil has a broader base because Brazil also taxes financial services.
Source: Bloomberg Tax ↗
Because NZ taxes all food, it sidesteps the quirky tax-classification debates seen elsewhere - like the UK courts having to rule whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit, or whether a Pringle is a potato chip.
Deloitte NZ cites the UK Jaffa Cake and Pringle cases as exactly the boundary disputes NZ avoids by refusing to exempt any food category, warning that an NZ food exemption would create the same headaches (e.g. a chocolate-chip cookie GST-free but a chocolate-dipped biscuit taxed).
Source: Deloitte New Zealand ↗
When Labour campaigned in 2023 to make fresh fruit and vegetables GST-free, nearly every tax expert RNZ surveyed - about a dozen - questioned it, including Don Brash, who chaired the 1985 committee that designed NZ's GST.
Economist Brad Olsen noted the Tax Working Group itself reckoned shoppers would be lucky to see 30% pass-through, with the rest pocketed by retailers; only one of the dozen experts RNZ approached offered even qualified support.
Source: RNZ ↗
In 2010 New Zealand raised GST from 12.5% to 15% while simultaneously cutting income tax across the board and lifting pensions and benefits to compensate - an explicit switch from taxing earning to taxing spending.
From 1 October 2010 the top income tax rate dropped from 38% to 33%, every income bracket was cut, the company rate fell to 28%, and benefits, superannuation and Working for Families were lifted about 2% to offset the GST rise.
Source: NZ Herald ↗
New Zealand was an early mover on the 'Netflix tax', extending 15% GST to offshore digital ('remote') services like streaming and apps from 1 October 2016.
The rule forced foreign suppliers selling to NZ consumers to register and charge GST, and NZ later extended GST collection to low-value imported goods too.
Source: Wikipedia (Goods and Services Tax, New Zealand) ↗
New Zealand's income tax began in 1891 under the Liberal government with a top rate of 5% and an exemption for incomes under £300; today the top personal rate is 39% and companies pay 28%.
Wikipedia: income tax began in 1891 under the Liberal Government 'with a top rate of 5% and an exemption for incomes under £300'; 'Companies pay income tax at 28% on profits'; the 39% rate applies above $180,000; 'personal tax years run from 1 April to 31 March'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in New Zealand ↗
New Zealand has no comprehensive capital gains tax — it taxes investment returns through specific regimes instead — and no social security or payroll tax either.
Wikipedia: New Zealand 'taxes investment returns via specific regimes instead of a comprehensive capital gains tax', with capital gains taxed only in limited cases such as some residential property sold within a set period; 'There is no social security (payroll) tax.'
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in New Zealand ↗
KiwiSaver began on 2 July 2007 and automatically enrols every new employee aged 18 to 64, who can opt out between day 14 and day 56 of the job; the minimum contribution rises from 3% to 3.5% on 1 April 2026.
Wikipedia: the scheme 'Started operating on 2 July 2007'; the $1,000 'kick-start' for new members was removed 'effective from 21 May 2015'; from 1 July 2025 the maximum annual government contribution was halved from $521.43 to $260.72.
Source: Wikipedia — KiwiSaver ↗

Singapore

Introduced 1994 (1 April 1994, at 3%). On the recommendation of the 1986 Economic Committee, Singapore decided it needed to shift from direct to indirect taxes to stay competitive for investment and prepare for an ageing population. GST was implemented at a single rate of 3% on 1 April 1994 — among the lowest consumption-tax rates in the world at the time — with an assurance it would not be raised for at least five years. The introduction came alongside cuts to income tax (corporate and top personal rates, both 40% prior to 1986, were progressively reduced, with a further 3-point cut simultaneous with GST in 1994 to 27% and 30% respectively).

Singapore launched GST at just 3% in 1994 — with an assurance it would not be raised for at least five years — as a gradual introduction rather than a revenue grab.
The 3% rate was among the lowest consumption-tax rates in the world; it later rose to 4% (2003), 5% (2004), 7% (2007), 8% (2023) and 9% (2024).
Source: Goods and Services Tax (Singapore) — Wikipedia ↗
When GST arrived on 1 April 1994, Singapore simultaneously cut its corporate and top personal income tax rates by 3 percentage points (to 27% and 30%) — part of a deliberate shift from direct to indirect taxation, not an extra tax piled on top.
Both rates had stood at 40% prior to 1986; the move was made on the 1986 Economic Committee's recommendation that Singapore shift from direct to indirect taxes.
Source: Goods and Services Tax (Singapore) — Wikipedia ↗
Every Singapore GST hike has come bundled with an offset package that hands lower-income households more than the increase costs them: when the rate rose from 5% to 7% in 2007, the poorest 20% paid about S$370 a year more but received a S$910 offset plus S$1,000 in permanent annual benefits.
The offsets keep growing: the 'Assurance Package' tied to the 2023–24 hikes was enhanced to over S$10 billion by September 2023.
Source: Goods and Services Tax (Singapore) — Wikipedia ↗
Gold, silver and platinum bullion are completely GST-exempt in Singapore — the government treats investment-grade precious metals like financial assets rather than goods.
The exemption took effect on 1 October 2012 to grow Singapore into a bullion-trading hub; metals must meet purity standards (gold 99.5%, silver 99.9%, platinum 99%) and be in tradable bar/coin/ingot/wafer form.
Source: Singapore Customs — GST Exemption for Investment Precious Metals ↗
Singapore set up a standing 'Committee Against GST Profiteering' in 1994 to investigate businesses using the tax as cover to jack up prices.
The committee investigates complaints of unjustified price increases blamed on GST and was reactivated for later rate changes.
Source: Goods and Services Tax (Singapore) — Wikipedia ↗
Singapore's income tax starts at 0% on the first S$20,000 and climbs through a dozen steps to a top rate of 24% on chargeable income above S$1 million.
IRAS resident rates (YA 2024 onwards): 2% on the next $10,000, then 3.5%, 7%, 11.5%, 15%, 18%, 19%, 19.5%, 20%, 22% on $320,000–$500,000, 23% to $1,000,000 and 24% 'In excess of $1,000,000'; non-resident employment income is taxed at a flat 15% or the resident rates, whichever gives the higher tax.
Source: IRAS — Individual income tax rates ↗
Singapore has no capital gains tax: IRAS says gains from selling property, shares and financial instruments 'are generally not taxable' — unless you are found to be trading, judged by frequency, motive and holding.
IRAS: 'Gains from the sale of a property, shares and financial instruments in Singapore are generally not taxable. However, gains from "trading in properties" may be taxable', with the factors being frequency of transactions, motive, financial means to hold long term and holding period.
Source: IRAS — Gains from sale of property, shares and financial instruments ↗
Singapore's CPF takes 37% of a younger worker's monthly wage — 20% from the employee and 17% from the employer — for everyone aged 55 and below.
CPF Board, 'Contribution rates from 1 January 2026 (monthly wages > $750)': for employees aged 55 and below the employer pays 17% of wage, the employee 20%, a total of 37%; different ceilings apply to Ordinary Wages and Additional Wages.
Source: CPF Board — How much CPF contributions to pay ↗
Singapore's corporate tax is a flat 17%, but partial exemption makes 75% of the first S$10,000 and 50% of the next S$190,000 of profit tax-free — and new start-ups get 75% off their first S$100,000 for three years.
IRAS: 'Your company is taxed at a flat rate of 17% of its chargeable income'; Partial Tax Exemption (YA 2020 onwards): '75% exemption on the first $10,000' and 'A further 50% exemption on the next $190,000'; the start-up exemption gives 75% on the first $100,000 and 50% on the next $100,000 for the first three YAs.
Source: IRAS — Corporate income tax rate, rebates and tax exemption schemes ↗

India

Introduced 2017 (1 July 2017). GST required amending the Constitution itself: the 101st Amendment Act, 2016 (President's assent 8 Sept 2016) conferred a simultaneous power on Parliament and the State Legislatures to tax goods and services and created a GST Council to set rates jointly. It launched at the stroke of midnight on 30 June/1 July 2017 in a special session of Parliament's Central Hall, where President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Modi pressed a button to switch it on, an event evoking India's 1947 independence midnight session and boycotted by several opposition parties (Congress, Trinamool, DMK, the Left).

India switched on GST at the stroke of midnight in a special session of Parliament's Central Hall, evoking India's 1947 independence midnight session, with the President and PM literally pressing a button to launch it on a digital screen.
A minute after midnight on 1 July 2017, President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Modi pressed a button to launch GST in the Central Hall; Modi invoked an Einstein remark on the difficulty of understanding (income) tax, while Congress, Trinamool, the DMK and the Left boycotted the event, calling it a self-promoting 'tamasha' that insulted the freedom struggle.
Source: India TV News ↗
The World Bank ranked India's 28% top GST slab as the second-highest such rate among a sample of 115 countries, and India was one of only five nations (with Italy, Luxembourg, Pakistan and Ghana) using four or more separate GST/VAT rates.
The March 2018 World Bank India Development Update called India's GST one of the most complex in the world, citing multiple rates, a high peak rate and many exemptions.
Source: Business Today ↗
India's monthly GST haul hit a record 2.37 lakh crore rupees (about US$28 billion) in April 2025, the biggest single-month collection since the tax began in 2017.
The gross figure was up 12.6% over April 2024, driven by year-end filings and strong domestic and import activity.
Source: Business Today ↗
GST couldn't be passed as an ordinary law; it required amending the Indian Constitution to create a brand-new shared taxing power and a GST Council where the Centre and all the states decide rates together.
The Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016 conferred simultaneous GST powers on Parliament and the state legislatures and set up the GST Council, subsuming roughly 17 central and state levies into one tax.
Source: CBIC, Government of India (cbic-gst.gov.in) ↗
On top of the old 28% maximum, India layered an extra 'compensation cess' on sin and luxury goods; in the September 2025 'GST 2.0' overhaul the four-slab structure was simplified to mainly 5% and 18%, the cess was largely scrapped, and a single new 40% slab was created for sin and luxury goods.
The GST Council announced the changes on 3 September 2025, effective 22 September 2025: the 12% and 28% slabs were abolished, the compensation cess discontinued (except on tobacco/pan masala products), and 40% applied to items like tobacco, aerated drinks, high-end cars, yachts and private aircraft.
Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India ↗
India's first Income-tax Act was introduced in February 1860 by James Wilson to refill a treasury drained by the 1857 uprising; the Viceroy assented on 24 July 1860.
Wikipedia: 'the first Income-tax Act was introduced in February 1860 by James Wilson' amid an acute post-1857 financial crisis; the 1922 Act shifted administration from provincial to central control, and the Income-tax Act 1961 'became effective on 1 April 1962' with 298 sections and fourteen schedules.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in India ↗
After 64 years the Income-tax Act 1961 has been retired: the Income Tax Act 2025 passed Parliament on 11–12 August 2025, got assent on 21 August and took effect on 1 April 2026, cutting over 800 sections to 536.
Wikipedia: the bill passed the Lok Sabha on 11 August 2025 and the Council of States on 12 August 2025, 'became law upon receiving Presidential assent on 21 August 2025' and came into force on 1 April 2026; it merges the separate 'Assessment Year' and 'Previous Year' concepts into a single 'Tax Year'.
Source: Wikipedia — Income Tax Act, 2025 ↗
Indian taxpayers choose between two income-tax regimes: the 'old' one with deductions such as Section 80C's ₹1.5 lakh, and the 'new' one with lower rates and fewer deductions, introduced from FY 2020–21.
Wikipedia: the new regime was announced in Budget 2020 and took effect in FY 2020–21; 'Currently, Indian taxpayers can choose between the old tax regime and the new tax regime'; the deductions list shows '§80C – Up to ₹ 150,000'.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in India ↗

United Kingdom

Introduced 1973. VAT came to Britain as the entry ticket to the European Economic Community: a value-added tax was a requirement of joining, so Edward Heath's government scrapped Purchase Tax and the Selective Employment Tax and launched VAT on 1 April 1973 at a single 10% rate (introduced by the Finance Act 1972, with Chancellor Anthony Barber setting the rate), leaving most food, fuel and housing zero-rated.

The UK adopted VAT largely because a value-added tax was a requirement of joining the European Economic Community in 1973.
With Edward Heath's government set on EEC entry, VAT (legislated by the Finance Act 1972) replaced Purchase Tax and the Selective Employment Tax on 1 April 1973 at a single 10% rate set by Chancellor Anthony Barber - then the lowest standard VAT rate in Europe.
Source: ICAEW - A brief history of VAT in Europe and the UK ↗
In a 1991 tribunal, McVitie's defended Jaffa Cakes as cakes (not chocolate biscuits) by baking a giant 12-inch Jaffa Cake and arguing that cakes go hard when stale while biscuits go soft.
VAT is charged on chocolate-covered biscuits but cakes of any kind are zero-rated; the tribunal ruled Jaffa Cakes had 'sufficient characteristics of cakes' and kept them tax-free, making it Britain's most famous tax-classification case.
Source: Wikipedia - Jaffa Cakes ↗
HMRC treats a gingerbread man with chocolate eyes as tax-free, but add chocolate trousers or buttons and it becomes 20% more expensive.
HMRC's official VAT Food manual lists 'gingerbread men with chocolate eyes' among items not considered wholly or partly chocolate-covered (so zero-rated); a biscuit figure with further chocolate decoration is partly covered and becomes standard-rated confectionery.
Source: GOV.UK - HMRC VAT Food manual VFOOD6240 ↗
Marks & Spencer fought a roughly 13-year legal battle, all the way to the European Court of Justice, to win back £3.5 million of VAT it had wrongly paid on chocolate teacakes since 1973.
HM Customs & Excise admitted by letter on 30 September 1994 that the teacakes were zero-rated cakes, not biscuits, but resisted a full refund on 'unjust enrichment' grounds; the ECJ finally ruled in M&S's favour in 2008 on grounds of equal treatment / fiscal neutrality.
Source: Accountancy Age - M&S feasts on £3.5m teacake windfall ↗
The 1991 VAT hike from 15% to 17.5% was made mainly to help pay down Margaret Thatcher's unpopular 'poll tax'.
Chancellor Norman Lamont raised the rate, with the extra revenue used to fund a reduction in the deeply unpopular community charge; the 17.5% rate then held for 17 years, until 2008.
Source: Wikipedia - Value-added tax in the United Kingdom ↗
Britain's income tax was born in 1799 as William Pitt the Younger's war tax against Napoleonic France — 2 old pence in the pound on incomes over £60, rising to 2 shillings (10%) above £200.
Wikipedia: 'Income tax was announced in Britain by William Pitt the Younger in his budget of December 1798 and introduced in 1799.' Addington abolished it in 1802 during the Peace of Amiens and reintroduced it in 1803 when war resumed; 'it was again abolished in 1816, one year after the Battle of Waterloo', before Sir Robert Peel's Income Tax Act 1842 brought it back to tackle a budget deficit.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in the United Kingdom ↗
National Insurance dates from the National Insurance Act 1911 and was expanded by the Attlee government in 1948 into a single stamp covering the new welfare state; today it is the UK's second-biggest source of revenue.
Wikipedia: the employee Class 1 rate is 8% on weekly earnings between £242.01 and £967 (2026/27), and 'The employer rate was increased from 13.8% to 15%' from 6 April 2025.
Source: Wikipedia — National Insurance ↗
The UK tax year starts on 6 April because of a calendar quirk: the old year began on Lady Day, 25 March, and when Britain dropped 11 days in September 1752 to adopt the Gregorian calendar, the year-end slid to 5 April.
Wikipedia's Fiscal year article: the 5 April year end 'reflects the old civil and ecclesiastical calendar under which New Year began on 25 March (Lady Day)', and 'The difference between the two dates is accounted for by the eleven days omitted in September 1752' under the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.
Source: Wikipedia — Fiscal year ↗
Earn over £100,000 in the UK and your tax-free Personal Allowance of £12,570 shrinks by £1 for every £2 of extra income — disappearing entirely at £125,140.
GOV.UK (tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027): basic rate 20% on £12,571 to £50,270, higher rate 40% to £125,140, additional rate 45% above; 'Your personal allowance goes down by £1 for every £2 that your adjusted net income is above £100,000', so 'your allowance is zero if your income is £125,140 or above'.
Source: GOV.UK — Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances ↗
Scotland runs its own income tax on earnings with six bands — from a 19% starter rate to a 48% top rate — where the rest of the UK has three.
GOV.UK lists the 2026 to 2027 Scottish rates: starter 19% (£12,571–£16,537), basic 20% (to £29,526), intermediate 21% (to £43,662), higher 42% (to £75,000), advanced 45% (to £125,140) and top 48% above that.
Source: GOV.UK — Scottish Income Tax ↗
ISAs launched on 6 April 1999 with a £7,000 annual limit, replacing PEPs and TESSAs; the allowance reached £20,000 in 2017–18 and is still £20,000 for 2026–27.
Wikipedia: ISAs 'were introduced on 6 April 1999, replacing the earlier personal equity plans', with TESSAs the cash-account predecessor; the limit was £7,000 from 1999/2000 to 2007/08 and reached £20,000 in 2017/18. The Lifetime ISA, from 6 April 2017, pays 'a 25% bonus on contributions of up to £4,000 a year'.
Source: Wikipedia — Individual savings account ↗
Britain had no capital gains tax until 1965, when Labour Chancellor James Callaghan introduced it at 30%; the rates today are 18% and 24%, set on 30 October 2024.
Wikipedia: 'The capital gains tax (CGT) system was introduced by Labour Chancellor James Callaghan in 1965'; most gains were taxed at 30% until 1988; Gordon Brown 'changed the rate to 18% for all taxpayers' in 2008; Rachel Reeves 'increased the lower and higher rates from 30 October 2024 to 18% and 24%'.
Source: Wikipedia — Capital gains tax in the United Kingdom ↗
The UK's tax-free capital gains allowance was cut by three-quarters in two years: £12,300 in 2022–23, £6,000 in 2023–24 and just £3,000 from 2024–25.
Wikipedia: the annual exempt amount was 'reduced to £6,000 for the tax year 2023-24, and further reduced to £3,000 for the tax year 2024-25'. Private residence relief 'brings an individual's principal residence out of scope of the tax'.
Source: Wikipedia — Capital gains tax in the United Kingdom ↗
English student loans come in 'Plans' by start date: Plan 1 for courses before September 2012, Plan 2 for 2012–2023 and Plan 5 for courses starting on or after 1 August 2023 — while every Scottish graduate is on Plan 4.
GOV.UK: Plan 1 covers England and Wales courses started before 1 September 2012 and all Northern Ireland loans; Plan 2 covers England from 1 September 2012 to 31 July 2023 (Wales from 2012 onward); Plan 4 is Scotland 'whether you studied an undergraduate course or a postgraduate course'; Plan 5 is England from 1 August 2023; master's and doctoral loans sit on a separate Postgraduate Loan plan. You cannot choose your plan.
Source: GOV.UK — Repaying your student loan: which repayment plan you are on ↗
UK graduates repay 9% of income above their plan's threshold — £25,000 on Plan 5, £26,900 on Plan 1, £29,385 on Plan 2, £33,795 on Plan 4 — and 6% above £21,000 on a Postgraduate Loan.
GOV.UK: 'You repay 9% of your income over the threshold if you're on Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5' and '6% of your income over the threshold if you're on a Postgraduate Loan plan'; the figures are the annual thresholds published for the current (2026–27) tax year.
Source: GOV.UK — Repaying your student loan: what you pay ↗
UK Corporation Tax has two rates again: 25% for profits over £250,000 and a 19% 'small profits rate' under £50,000, with marginal relief in between — after eight years (2015–2023) of a single rate for every company.
GOV.UK: 'If your company made more than £250,000 profit, you'll pay the main rate of Corporation Tax' of 25%; 'If your company made a profit of £50,000 or less, you'll pay the small profits rate, which is 19%'; 'From 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2023, a single rate of Corporation Tax applied to all companies.'
Source: GOV.UK — Corporation Tax rates and reliefs ↗

Canada

Introduced 1991 (GST took effect January 1, 1991). Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and finance minister Michael Wilson brought in the 7% GST in 1991 to replace the hidden 13.5% Manufacturers' Sales Tax, which Mulroney argued was hobbling Canadian exporters. The tax was so unpopular that when the Liberal-controlled Senate tried to block it, Mulroney invoked Section 26 of the Constitution Act, 1867 to have the Queen appoint eight extra senators and force the bill through in September 1990 — the only time that deadlock clause has ever been used.

To pass the GST, Mulroney used a 'deadlock' clause to pack the Senate with eight extra senators appointed by the Queen — the only time in Canadian history Section 26 of the Constitution has ever been used.
In September 1990 the Liberal-dominated Senate was blocking the tax, so Mulroney invoked Section 26 of the Constitution Act, 1867 to temporarily expand the Senate by eight seats, giving his Progressive Conservatives their first Senate majority in nearly 50 years. The provision had been available since Confederation but Mulroney was the first PM to use it.
Source: Library of Parliament — The Senate: appointments under Section 26 of the Constitution Act, 1867 ↗
In Canada the same doughnut can be taxed or tax-free depending only on how many you buy: fewer than six is taxable, six or more is zero-rated.
CRA's Basic Groceries memorandum treats cakes, muffins, pies, pastries, doughnuts, cookies and similar single-serving sweetened baked goods as taxable when sold in quantities of fewer than six, but as zero-rated basic groceries at six or more — even a mix of six different items (e.g. two bagels, two muffins, two doughnuts) counts as six and is zero-rated.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency — Basic Groceries (GST/HST Memorandum 4-3) ↗
British Columbians literally voted their consumption tax out of existence — a 2011 referendum scrapped the year-old HST, sending the province back to separate PST + GST.
After Bill Vander Zalm gathered more than 700,000 signatures, 54.73% of voters chose in the August 2011 referendum to 'extinguish' BC's HST (adopted July 1, 2010), forcing the province back to PST (7%) plus GST (5%) on April 1, 2013.
Source: CBC News — B.C. votes 55% to scrap HST ↗
Canada's GST is one of the rare national VATs that has gone DOWN, not up — cut from 7% to 6% in 2006 and to 5% in 2008.
The Harper government reduced the federal GST by a point on July 1, 2006 and another point effective January 1, 2008, where it has stayed since.
Source: Wikipedia — Goods and services tax (Canada) ↗
Canada charged GST on tampons for 24 years before scrapping the 'tampon tax' in 2015 after a decade-long campaign.
NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis first tried to zero-rate menstrual products in 2004; Ottawa finally removed GST/HST on tampons, pads and menstrual cups effective July 1, 2015, at an estimated cost of about $36 million a year.
Source: CBC News — Federal government lifts GST on feminine hygiene products as of July 1 ↗
Canada's income tax began as the Income War Tax Act of 1917, introduced by finance minister Sir Thomas White to fund the First World War — after the war Ottawa could not give up the revenue, and the tax never left.
Wikipedia: White's 'Income War Tax Act' bill 'went into Committee of the Whole on July 25, 1917 but faced resistance'; after the war the federal government could not do without the revenue. Today the federal brackets run from 14% (cut from 15% on 1 July 2025) to 33% above $258,482 (2026), with a basic personal amount of $16,452.
Source: Wikipedia — Income taxes in Canada ↗
RRSPs date from 1957: Canadians can contribute 18% of the previous year's earned income up to an annual cap, have until the 60th day after year-end to do it, and must wind the plan up by the end of the year they turn 71.
Wikipedia: RRSPs 'were introduced in 1957 to promote savings by employees and self-employed people'; 'Since 1991, contribution limits are calculated at 18% of the prior year's reported earned income', up to a maximum ($31,560 for 2024); contributions can be made 'up until and including the 60th day following December 31 of the tax year'; 'Before the end of the year the account holder turns 71, the RRSP must either be cashed out' or converted.
Source: Wikipedia — Registered retirement savings plan ↗
The Tax-Free Savings Account, announced in Jim Flaherty's 2008 budget, opened on 1 January 2009 with $5,000 of room a year; by 1 January 2026 anyone 18 or over throughout had $109,000 of cumulative room.
Wikipedia: 'It came into effect on January 1, 2009'; the cap was $5,000 a year before 2013, $10,000 for 2015 only before reverting to $5,500, and $7,000 a year for 2024–2026; 'Contributions to a TFSA are not deductible for income tax purposes', but investment income 'is generally not taxed, even when withdrawn'.
Source: Wikipedia — Tax-free savings account ↗
Canada first taxed capital gains under the 1971 budget of Pierre Trudeau and Edgar Benson — the same reform that killed the federal estate tax; half of a realised gain is taxable, and a primary residence is exempt.
Wikipedia: 'A Capital gains tax was first introduced in Canada by Pierre Trudeau and his finance minister Edgar Benson in the 1971 Canadian federal budget'; 'For corporations as for individuals, 50% of realized capital gains are taxable'; 'Primary residences are exempt from capital gains'; the federal estate tax was repealed at the end of 1971.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Canada ↗

United States

Introduced 1932 (first state general sales tax; no federal VAT/GST exists). The United States is the only major developed economy with no federal VAT or national sales tax; consumption is taxed instead by thousands of overlapping state and local sales-tax jurisdictions. The model was born in 1932 when Mississippi, facing a roughly $13 million Depression deficit, enacted the first statewide general sales tax (2%). The US House nearly passed a federal manufacturers' sales tax that same year, but a rank-and-file revolt — the "Sales Tax Rebellion" of 1932 — killed it, steering the country permanently toward state-level sales taxes.

The US is the only OECD economy without a national VAT or GST — consumption is taxed entirely by state and local sales taxes across thousands of separate jurisdictions.
Congress repeatedly debated a national sales tax (and later a VAT) but never adopted one, leaving general consumption taxation to the states from the 1930s onward.
Source: OECD Consumption Tax Trends — United States ↗
In 1932 the US House nearly passed a federal sales tax, but a rank-and-file 'Sales Tax Rebellion' killed it — Congress instead enacted a slew of excise taxes on luxuries like furs, jewelry, yachts and safety deposit boxes.
With Depression revenues collapsing, Democratic leaders backed a manufacturers' sales tax that was defeated by a backbench revolt; lawmakers fell back on narrow excise levies plus higher income and estate rates, permanently steering the US away from a national consumption tax.
Source: Tax History Project / Tax Notes — The Republican Roots of New Deal Tax Policy ↗
Mississippi launched America's first statewide general sales tax in 1932 at 2% — Governor Mike Conner actually wanted 3 cents on the dollar but the legislature cut him to 2.
Conner pushed an Emergency Revenue Act to ease a roughly $13 million Depression deficit; the 2% tax took effect May 1, 1932, and has since grown to Mississippi's 7% rate.
Source: Magnolia Tribune ↗
Whether a candy bar is taxable can hinge on whether it contains flour: in many states a Twix or Kit Kat is tax-free 'food' while a Snickers or Milky Way is taxable 'candy.'
The Streamlined Sales Tax definition (adopted by ~24 states in 2002) excludes anything listing flour as an ingredient from 'candy,' so wafer/cookie bars like Twix and Kit Kat escape candy tax while pure chocolate-and-nut bars like Snickers don't.
Source: PBS NewsHour ↗
America's first income tax was a Civil War measure: Congress enacted a flat 3% on incomes over $800 in 1861 to pay for the war, later made graduated, and repealed it in 1872.
The National Archives: 'to help pay for the Civil War, Congress enacted the first American income tax', 'a flat 3% on incomes over $800'; it 'was later made graduated' and repealed in 1872. An 1894 attempt — 2% on incomes over $4,000 — was struck down by the Supreme Court in a 5–4 decision.
Source: U.S. National Archives — 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ↗
The modern federal income tax needed a constitutional amendment: the 16th Amendment passed Congress on 2 July 1909 and was ratified on 3 February 1913, letting Congress tax incomes without apportioning among the states.
The National Archives: 'Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913'; the text gives Congress 'the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration'.
Source: U.S. National Archives — 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ↗
In 1913 the top US income tax rate was 7%, on incomes over $500,000. By 1944–45 it had reached an all-time high of 94% on income above $200,000.
Wikipedia's history of top rates: 'the top tax rate was 7% on incomes above $500,000' in 1913; 77% in 1918; 94% on income above $200,000 in 1944–45, 'its all-time high'; 92% in 1952–53; 50% for 1982–86; 28% in 1988–90; and 37% since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in the United States ↗
'Tax Day' has moved twice: the first federal returns in 1913 were due 1 March, then 15 March from 1918, and 15 April since 1955 — unless it falls on a weekend or on Washington DC's Emancipation Day holiday.
Wikipedia: the deadline 'for individuals was March 1 in 1913', 'was changed to March 15 in 1918 and again to April 15 in 1955'; when it 'conflicts with a weekend or public holiday such as Emancipation Day' the due date moves to the next business day.
Source: Wikipedia — Tax Day ↗
The 401(k) is named for a subsection of the tax code added by the Revenue Act of 1978; benefits consultant Ted Benna was among the first to build a plan on it — at his own employer, the Johnson Companies.
Wikipedia: Congress enacted 'Internal Revenue Code Section 401(k) as part of the Revenue Act' signed on 6 November 1978; Benna 'was among the first to establish a 401(k) plan, creating it at his own employer, the Johnson Companies'. The employee deferral limit is $23,500 for 2025 and $24,500 for 2026.
Source: Wikipedia — 401(k) ↗
Every US paycheck carries two flat payroll taxes: 6.2% for Social Security, matched by the employer, up to a wage base of $184,500 in 2026 — and 1.45% for Medicare with no ceiling at all.
IRS Topic 751: 'The current tax rate for Social Security is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% total'; 'The current rate for Medicare is 1.45% for the employer and 1.45% for the employee, or 2.9% total'; 'For earnings in 2026, this base limit is $184,500'; 'There's no wage base limit for Medicare tax'; employers also withhold a 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000.
Source: IRS — Topic no. 751, Social Security and Medicare withholding rates ↗
The US taxes capital gains by patience: sell within a year and the gain is taxed like wages; hold longer and most people pay 0%, 15% or 20% — though collectibles such as coins and art are capped at 28%.
IRS Topic 409 (tax year 2025): 'if you hold it one year or less, your capital gain or loss is short-term'; long-term gains are 0% up to $48,350 of taxable income (single), 15% up to $533,400 and 20% above; 'Net capital gains from selling collectibles (such as coins or art) are taxed at a maximum 28% rate'; net capital losses can offset only $3,000 of other income a year ($1,500 if married filing separately).
Source: IRS — Topic no. 409, Capital gains and losses ↗
A US citizen living abroad still files a US return: the IRS taxes 'worldwide income from all sources' regardless of where you live — though expats get an automatic filing extension to 15 June.
IRS: 'You are subject to tax on worldwide income from all sources'; for citizens and resident aliens living overseas 'the automatic extended due date would be June 15', two months after the regular 15 April deadline. The foreign earned income exclusion is among the special benefits available.
Source: IRS — U.S. citizens and resident aliens abroad ↗
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act replaced a graduated corporate income tax of 15% to 35% with a flat 21% from 2018 — the top rate had been 35% since 1993, and peaked at 53% in 1942.
Wikipedia: the flat 21% rate took effect for tax years beginning after 31 December 2017, 'replacing a graduated structure ranging from 15% to 35%'; the top corporate rate 'fell from a high of 53% in 1942 to 38% in 1993', and corporations in the top bracket paid 35% from 1993 to 2017.
Source: Wikipedia — Corporate tax in the United States ↗

Germany

Introduced 1968 (modern VAT); a general turnover tax existed from 1918. Germany first introduced a general turnover tax (Umsatzsteuer) in 1918 to help cover the costs of World War I, starting at just 0.5%. On 1 January 1968, following the European Economic Community's push for a harmonized VAT, Germany replaced its cascading gross turnover tax with a modern net all-phase VAT with input-tax deduction (Mehrwertsteuer), launching at a 10% standard rate with a reduced rate set at half that (5%). The standard rate reached today's 19% in 2007. Source: German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), "100 Jahre Umsatzsteuer."

Germany taxed tampons and sanitary products at the full 19% rate while items like caviar, truffles and cut flowers enjoyed the reduced 7% rate.
The gap stood until a 2019 Bundestag vote cut sanitary products to 7%, effective 1 January 2020. Cut flowers, truffles and caviar all sit in the reduced-rate Annex 2 (Anlage 2) to the German VAT Act.
Source: iamexpat.de ↗
To protest the tampon tax, German startup The Female Company sold "The Tampon Book" — tampons hidden inside a book — exploiting the 7% rate on books, and the first print run sold out in a day.
Books qualified for the reduced 7% rate while menstrual products were taxed at 19%; the first print run sold out in a day and the second within a week. The stunt helped pressure the 2019 reform.
Source: iamexpat.de ↗
A cappuccino made with cow's milk is taxed at 7% in Germany, but the identical drink made with oat or soy milk is taxed at 19%.
German VAT gives the reduced rate to drinks that are at least ~75% animal milk (e.g. a cappuccino at 75-80% milk). Plant 'milks' aren't legally milk under EU rules protecting the term, so they fall to the 19% standard rate.
Source: eClear ↗
The European Court of Justice ruled in 2011 that Germany broke EU law by giving racehorses and saddle horses the same reduced VAT rate as farm animals destined for the dinner plate.
In Case C-453/09 (decided 12 May 2011) the Court held the reduced rate applies only to live animals 'normally intended' for food or feed, forcing Germany to charge full VAT on sport and leisure horses.
Source: VATupdate ↗
Germany's very first general turnover tax in 1918 was a wartime levy of just 0.5% — the standard rate has since climbed to 19%.
Introduced amid World War I, the rate reached 4% by 1951 before the 1968 switch to modern VAT at 10%, reaching today's 19% in 2007.
Source: German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) ↗
German church members pay a church tax of 8% or 9% of their income tax — 8% in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, 9% elsewhere — and the way out is a declaration to the civil authorities, not to the church.
Wikipedia: taxpayers pay 'an amount equal to 8% in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and 9% in the rest of the country, of their income tax'; the basis is Article 137 of the 1919 Weimar Constitution, carried into Article 140 of the 1949 Basic Law; the tax raised 'about €13.1 billion in 2022', roughly 70% of church revenues.
Source: Wikipedia — Church tax ↗
Germany's 'Soli' began in 1991 as a temporary 7.5% surcharge on income tax, lapsed in 1993–94, returned in 1995 to pay for reunification and fell to 5.5% in 1998 — and since 2021 about 90% of former payers owe nothing.
German Wikipedia: in 1991–92 the surcharge applied for only half of each year (effectively 3.75%), justified by Gulf War costs and 'zusätzliche Aufgaben in den neuen Bundesländern'; reintroduced without time limit in 1995 for the 'Kosten der deutschen Einheit'; 5.5% since 1998; from 2021 a Freigrenze with a sliding zone relieved 'rund 90 % aller Soli-Zahler'.
Source: Wikipedia (DE) — Solidaritätszuschlag ↗
Above the tax-free Grundfreibetrag, Germany's marginal income tax rate rises progressively from 14% to 42%, with a 45% top rate reserved for very high incomes.
Wikipedia: 'A basic personal allowance (Grundfreibetrag) is tax-free. Above it, marginal tax rates rise progressively from 14% to 42%, with a top rate of 45% for very high incomes.' The wage-tax class affects withholding during the year 'but does not change the underlying annual income-tax tariff'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Germany ↗

France

Introduced 1954. France invented the modern VAT: tax official Maurice Laure, who had trained as an engineer (Ecole Polytechnique, 1936) before helping create and joining the Direction generale des impots, designed the "taxe sur la valeur ajoutee" (TVA) to end the unpopular cascade taxes. The law enacting it was proclaimed on 10 April 1954 under President Rene Coty. Its trick was making businesses at every stage self-assess and remit tax only on the value they added.

VAT itself was invented in France in 1954 by a single tax official, Maurice Laure, who trained as an engineer at the Ecole Polytechnique before becoming a tax inspector.
Laure designed the taxe sur la valeur ajoutee to replace the inefficient cascade taxes; the model has since spread to more than 150 countries, with the United States the only major (OECD) holdout.
Source: Connexion France ↗
France once charged a luxury VAT of roughly 33% (the 'taux majore') on cars, perfume, jewellery, furs, cameras and caviar.
This higher rate ran at 33% from 1970 to 1982, was later cut to 28% (1988) then 22% (1990), and was abolished entirely in 1992; today luxury goods just pay the standard 20% rate.
Source: Wikipedia (FR) - Taxe sur la valeur ajoutee en France ↗
In 2024 France's highest court ruled that fresh supermarket sushi is taxed at 10%, not the 5.5% food rate, because it counts as food 'for immediate consumption.'
In the 'Sushi Saint-Cloud' decision (Conseil d'Etat, 18 June 2024, no. 476093) the court held that sushi is by its very nature meant to be eaten now, so packaging or place of purchase make no difference to the rate; the tax administration adopted this from 1 October 2024.
Source: BOFiP (French tax administration) - jurisprudence sushis frais ↗
France has a 'super-reduced' VAT rate of just 2.1% - one of the lowest legal rates in the EU.
It applies to medicines reimbursable by social security, the daily and periodical press (explicitly excluding pornographic publications), the TV licence fee, and the first 140 performances of a newly created theatrical or musical work.
Source: Wikipedia (FR) - Taxe sur la valeur ajoutee en France ↗
The same tub of caviar or margarine can be taxed at 10% or 20% depending only on whether you might eat it on the spot.
Caviar, margarine and vegetable fats are taxed at the full 20% rate when sold in packaging that lets you keep them, but drop to the 10% intermediate rate when sold for immediate consumption (e.g. in catering).
Source: Service-Public Entreprendre - VAT rates on food and beverages ↗
France created its income tax by the finance law of 15 July 1914 and first levied it in 1916, mid-way through the First World War; even today close to half of French tax households pay none at all.
French Wikipedia: the tax was 'créé par la loi de finances du 15 juillet 1914 et mis en place en 1916'; 'près de la moitié des foyers français n'est pas imposable' — 43.7% of tax households were taxable in 2017.
Source: Wikipédia (FR) — Impôt sur le revenu (France) ↗
France only moved to pay-as-you-earn on 1 January 2019; until then income tax was paid the year after it was earned — and employers are told only the rate to withhold, never the household's income.
French Wikipedia: 'depuis le 1er janvier 2019, l'impôt est prélevé à la source pour la plupart des contribuables'; the English article adds that the administration gives employers only the individual tax rate to apply, protecting employees' privacy, and lists the per-'part' rates 0%, 11%, 30%, 41% and 45%.
Source: Wikipédia (FR) — Impôt sur le revenu (France) ↗
French income tax is computed per 'part', not per person: the quotient familial, created in 1945, counts one part for a single adult, two for a couple, half a part for each of the first two children and one each after.
Wikipedia: 'The family quotient is one unit for a single person, two for a married couple', plus half a unit for each of the first two children and one unit for each later child; household income is divided by the parts before the progressive scale is applied.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in France ↗
France's wealth tax, the ISF, was abolished in September 2017 and replaced from 2018 by the IFI, which taxes only real-estate wealth — above a €1.3 million threshold that has stood since 2011.
Wikipedia: the earlier IGF was 'abolished in 1986 by Jacques Chirac's right-wing government' and the tax 'reestablished in 1988 as ISF'; the threshold has been €1.3 million 'since 2011'; the government abolished the ISF in September 2017 and replaced it with the real estate wealth tax (IFI) from 2018.
Source: Wikipedia — Solidarity tax on wealth ↗

Italy

Introduced 1973 (1 January 1973; legislated by Presidential Decree DPR n. 633 of 26 October 1972). Italy adopted IVA effective 1 January 1973 to replace its old cascading IGE turnover tax and align with the European Economic Community's harmonised VAT system (EEC directives 67/227 and 67/228), itself modelled on the French TVA pioneered by Maurice Lauré in 1954. The standard rate launched at 12%.

Until 2017, Italian truffle hunters could legally sell their finds anonymously with no receipt, and truffles were taxed at the full 22% VAT rate.
After the EU forced Italy's hand via 'EU Pilot 8123/15/TAXU', Law n.122 of 7 July 2016 (Art. 29) cut truffle VAT from 22% to 10% from 1 Jan 2017 and abolished the anonymous 'amateur collector', now requiring hunters to issue a receipt stating quantity, species and harvesting area.
Source: Villa Magna Tartufi - Truffle Tax Revolution ↗
Italy was the first EU country to make B2B and B2C electronic invoicing fully mandatory, routing every single domestic invoice through a government platform.
From 1 January 2019 all domestic invoices must pass through the Agenzia delle Entrate's 'Sistema di Interscambio' (SdI) in FatturaPA XML format, giving the tax authority near-real-time visibility of commercial transactions to fight VAT fraud.
Source: Sovos - E-invoicing Italy ↗
Italy's 'tampon tax' has bounced between four different VAT rates in three years - and was actually raised back up after a brief cut.
VAT on sanitary products went 22% -> 10% (Draghi, 2022) -> 5% (Meloni, 2023) -> back to 10% from January 2024, undoing the headline-grabbing 5% cut after barely a year.
Source: The Local Italy - Tampon tax: Italy to raise VAT on sanitary products ↗
Italy has long had one of the largest VAT gaps in the EU - the tax legally owed but never collected hit roughly EUR 35 billion in 2018.
Italy's VAT gap was about EUR 35.4 billion in 2018, the largest in the EU in nominal terms. Aggressive digitisation (mandatory e-invoicing via SdI from 2019) helped narrow it, but per the European Commission's 2023 country report the gap was still around EUR 25 billion - 15.0% of total VAT liability - keeping Italy among the EU's worst.
Source: European Commission - Italy VAT gap country report 2023 ↗
Everyday staples like bread, milk, fruit and vegetables carry a super-reduced 4% VAT in Italy - but the very same food becomes more expensive the moment it is served in a restaurant.
The 4% super-reduced rate (one of the lowest in the EU, also covering books, e-books and newspapers) explicitly excludes food consumed in restaurants, where the 10% reduced rate applies instead.
Source: eClear - VAT in Italy ↗
Italy's IRPEF has had three brackets since 2025 — 23% up to €28,000, 35% to €50,000 and 43% above — plus regional surcharges of 0.7% to 3.33% and municipal surcharges of up to 0.9% on top.
Wikipedia: under Law n. 207/2024 the 2025 brackets are 23% for €0–€28,000, 35% for €28,000–€50,000 and 43% 'over €50,000'; regions can add 'an additional 0.7 percent to 3.33 percent' and municipalities 'from 0.1 percent to 0.9 percent'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Italy ↗
Italian companies pay two profit taxes: IRES at 24% to the state, plus the regional IRAP at a standard 3.9% that each region may adjust by up to 0.92 points.
Wikipedia: Italy's corporate tax rate is 'currently at 24 percent'; the standard IRAP rate is '3.9 percent', adjustable by regional authorities by up to 0.92 percent.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Italy ↗

Spain

Introduced 1986. Spain introduced IVA on 1 January 1986, the same day it joined the European Economic Community — adopting a harmonised VAT was a condition of EEC membership. It replaced the IGTE cascade tax, whose compounding levy at every production stage favoured vertical concentration, pushing firms to merge to reduce the number of taxed stages.

Spain's VAT didn't just coincide with joining Europe — it was effectively the entry fee, switched on the literal first day of EEC membership, 1 January 1986.
Adopting the common European VAT was a precondition of accession; IVA launched with a 12% standard rate, far below today's 21%.
Source: Economipedia ↗
The tax IVA replaced — the IGTE — was so badly designed it effectively pushed companies to merge: the more separate firms a product passed through, the more 'cascade' tax piled up.
The IGTE (1964) taxed the full value at every stage, so vertical integration became a tax-avoidance strategy that distorted the economy; Economipedia notes it 'favoured vertical concentration and caused distortions.'
Source: Economipedia ↗
In 2012 Spain nearly tripled the VAT on cinema, theatre and concerts from 8% to 21% — drawing strong criticism from the culture industry.
The hike landed just as the national cinematography fund was cut 14% to €33m; cinema admissions, already over 30% below their 2001 peak (98.3m in 2011), kept falling, and the cultural rate was only rolled back to 10% for live performance in 2017 and cinema in 2018.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter ↗
During the 2022-24 inflation crisis Spain cut VAT on staple foods — bread, milk, cheese, eggs, fruit and vegetables — all the way to 0%.
The Sánchez government's anti-inflation package zero-rated basic foods (normally taxed at the 4% super-reduced rate) from 1 January 2023, with extensions running through 2024 before phasing back up.
Source: Sovos ↗
Olive oil — a Spanish national symbol — was politically sensitive enough that the government zero-rated its VAT in July 2024, then permanently moved it into the 4% 'basic necessity' bracket in 2025.
Agriculture minister Luis Planas called olive oil 'an emblem of Spain's agri-food heritage'; extra-virgin oil went 0% (Jul-Sep 2024), 2% (Oct-Dec 2024), then a permanent 4% from January 2025.
Source: La Moncloa (Government of Spain) ↗
Spain's 'Beckham law' (Royal Decree 687/2005) lets qualifying workers who move to Spain be taxed as non-residents — a flat 24% on Spanish-source salary, foreign income outside the net — for the arrival year plus five.
Wikipedia: the decree passed in June 2005 and is nicknamed after David Beckham but applies to foreign workers in general; 'The choice applies in the year of arrival in Spain and continues for the following five years'; salary income is taxed at a 'flat 24%' instead of the progressive 19%–45% scale, with no personal allowances; eligibility requires not having lived in Spain in the previous five years and relocating under an employment contract.
Source: Wikipedia — Beckham law ↗

Netherlands

Introduced 1969. The Netherlands switched to value-added tax on 1 January 1969 under the Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968 (enacted 28 June 1968), implementing the European Community's First and Second VAT Directives, which were themselves modeled on the French TVA invented by Maurice Lauré. It replaced the old cumulative cascade turnover tax (cumulatief cascadestelsel), which taxed the full value at every stage and so penalized longer supply chains.

When Dutch VAT launched in 1969, the standard rate was just 12% and the reduced rate 4% - both have climbed almost relentlessly to today's 21% and 9%.
The standard rate ratcheted up through 14% (1971), 16% (1973), 18% (1976), 19% (1984), 17.5% (1992), back to 19% (2001) and finally 21% (2012); the reduced rate went 4% to 5% (1984) to 6% (1986) to 9% (2019).
Source: Taxcel - BTW tarief historie ↗
The EU dragged the Netherlands to the Court of Justice for charging the cheap VAT rate on horses - and in 2011 the court ruled a horse headed for slaughter is not 'similar' to a racehorse or a pet.
In Case C-41/09 (judgment 3 March 2011) the Court found the Netherlands breached the EU VAT Directive (2006/112) by applying the reduced rate to ALL horses, when the cut rate was only permissible for horses supplied for slaughter to be used in preparing foodstuffs.
Source: EUR-Lex - Case C-41/09 Commission v Netherlands ↗
Cut flowers, pot plants and flower bulbs have enjoyed the Netherlands' reduced VAT rate since 1975 - originally justified as a way to help low-income households buy bouquets and create floriculture jobs.
A 2023 evaluation found the break ineffective (it doesn't actually reach poorer groups and the cost-per-job is high), so in March 2026 the Ministry of Finance opened a consultation to scrap the 9% rate for floriculture.
Source: Tax Expenditures Lab ↗
The Dutch VAT that exists today only came about because Brussels wanted a common European tax - the system was effectively imposed by EU directives, not home-grown.
The Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968 implemented the European Community's First and Second VAT Directives, replacing the older cumulative cascade turnover tax with a credit-invoice VAT modeled on the French TVA.
Source: Wikipedia (NL) - Wet op de omzetbelasting 1968 ↗
The Netherlands' standard VAT jumped from 19% to 21% overnight on 1 October 2012, a mid-fiscal-year austerity hike during the eurozone crisis.
The 2-point rise was part of a budget-deficit-cutting package aimed at keeping the deficit within 3% of GDP; the rate has stayed at 21% ever since, making it one of the higher standard VAT rates in the EU.
Source: Avalara - Netherlands raises VAT from 19% to 21% October 2012 ↗
Dutch income tax comes in three 'boxes': Box 1 for work and home, Box 2 for substantial shareholdings (24.5% and 33%), and Box 3, which taxes savings and investments at 36% on a presumed return, not the actual income.
Wikipedia: 'income is divided into the following three categories, so called boxes'; Box 1 is progressive with two brackets, Box 2 is taxed at 24.5% and 33%, and Box 3 is taxed at 36% on a presumed return; before 2021 Box 3 worked more like a wealth tax, and after a court ruling the tax is now assessed on the actual distribution of assets.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in the Netherlands ↗
The Dutch '30% facility' lets an employer pay a worker recruited from abroad up to 30% of salary tax-free for up to five years — capped at €78,600 in 2026, which is reached at a salary of €262,000.
Belastingdienst: 'your employer may also pay up to 30% of your salary, including compensation, to you untaxed'; 'Your decision has a duration of up to 5 years', shortened by earlier work or residence in the Netherlands; 'As of 2026, your maximum untaxed allowance is €78,600', reached with 'a salary of €262,000 or more'.
Source: Belastingdienst — Coming to work in the Netherlands: 30% facility ↗

Ireland

Introduced 1972. Ireland introduced VAT on 1 November 1972, two months before joining the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973 — accession was conditional on adopting a harmonised VAT system. It replaced the existing Turnover Tax and Wholesale Tax with a single value-added tax, set at an oddly precise 16.37% standard rate (the awkward figure arose because VAT applies to the pre-tax price, so nominal rates had to be higher to raise the same revenue as the old taxes).

When a Subway franchisee tried to claim its sandwich rolls were zero-VAT 'bread', Ireland's Supreme Court ruled the rolls are legally not bread at all.
In Bookfinders Ltd v The Revenue Commissioners [2020] IESC 60 (29 September 2020), the court applied the statutory definition that capped sugar (with fat and bread improver) at 2% of the weight of the flour in the dough; Subway's dough had about 10% sugar, so the rolls fell outside the definition of 'bread' and could not be zero-rated.
Source: BAILII – Bookfinders Ltd v Revenue Commissioners [2020] IESC 60 ↗
Ireland's standard VAT rate once reached as high as 35%.
Revenue's historical-rates record shows the standard rate peaked at 35% from 1 March 1983 until 1 May 1987 (during the early-1980s fiscal crisis) before falling back, eventually settling at 23%, where it remains today.
Source: Revenue Commissioners – Historical VAT rates ↗
Ireland's very first VAT standard rate in 1972 was a bizarrely precise 16.37%, not a round number.
VAT launched on 1 November 1972 at a 16.37% standard rate as Ireland prepared to join the EEC, replacing the older Turnover Tax and Wholesale Tax. The odd figure came from applying the new tax to the pre-tax price so it raised the same revenue as the taxes it replaced.
Source: Revenue Commissioners – Historical VAT rates ↗
An adult with small feet can be charged 23% VAT on the same shoes a child gets tax-free.
Children's personal footwear is zero-rated only up to roughly the average foot size for children under 11 (about size 5½ / continental 38). Footwear above that size, or adult footwear of any size, is taxed at the standard 23% rate — so an adult with small feet pays VAT on shoes a child would get tax-free.
Source: Revenue Commissioners – VAT and Footwear (Tax and Duty Manual) ↗
Whether your medicine is VAT-free in Ireland can depend on which end of you it goes in.
Medicine for human oral consumption is zero-rated, while many non-oral medicines and medical products are charged at the standard 23% rate (with limited exceptions such as certain hormone and nicotine replacement therapies).
Source: Revenue Commissioners – VAT treatment of Human Medicines (Tax and Duty Manual) ↗
Ireland's headline corporation tax rate on trading income is 12.5% — and in 2017, 80% of all Irish corporation tax was paid by foreign multinationals, according to the Revenue Commissioners.
Wikipedia: Ireland has a 'low headline rate of corporation tax at 12.5% (for trading income)'; '80% of 2017 Irish corporate tax was paid by foreign multinationals'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in the Republic of Ireland ↗
Irish income tax has just two bands, 20% and 40% — but since 1 January 2011 the Universal Social Charge, which replaced both the income levy and the health levy, is charged on top.
Wikipedia: there are '2 tax brackets, 20% (the standard rate) and the balance of income at 40% (the higher rate)'; the USC 'replaced both the income levy and the health levy' and applies 'since 1 January 2011'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in the Republic of Ireland ↗

UAE

Introduced 1 January 2018. VAT was introduced under Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 at a flat 5%, implementing the 2016 GCC-wide Unified VAT Agreement signed by all six Gulf states to diversify government revenue away from oil after the price crash. The UAE and Saudi Arabia were the first two GCC members to switch it on, both on the same day: 1 January 2018.

VAT was the UAE's first-ever broad federal tax — a country famous for charging residents no income tax began taxing nearly everything they buy on a single day, 1 January 2018.
Introduced under Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 to diversify revenue away from oil; the UAE still levies no personal income tax on residents.
Source: UAE Ministry of Finance ↗
At 5%, the UAE has one of the lowest standard VAT rates on Earth — undercut only by a handful of places like Andorra's 4.5%, and a fraction of Hungary's world-topping 27%.
Most national standard VAT rates sit between 15% and 27%; EU law forbids members from going below 15%.
Source: VATupdate – Global VAT Rates by Country 2026 ↗
The 5% rate was never a UAE decision alone — it was locked in by a treaty: the 2016 GCC Unified VAT Agreement that bound all six Gulf states to a common framework, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia flipping the switch together on 1 January 2018.
Saudi Arabia later broke ranks and tripled its rate to 15% in July 2020 to plug a COVID-era deficit; the UAE kept its 5%.
Source: ZATCA (Saudi tax authority) – GCC Unified VAT Agreement ↗
Certain UAE free zones are legally treated as being 'outside the State' for VAT — so a warehouse a few kilometres from Dubai's centre can sit in tax-no-man's-land for goods, yet still be 'inside' the UAE the moment you sell a service there.
These 'Designated Zones' (about 23 of them) must be fenced with customs and security controls; goods within them are outside VAT scope but services are taxed at 5%.
Source: UAE Federal Tax Authority – Designated Zones VAT Guide ↗
Gold creates a VAT split personality: investment-grade bars and coins of 99%+ purity are zero-rated, but the gold necklace next to them is taxed at the full 5% — including the jeweller's making charges.
Since Feb 2025 (Cabinet Decision 127 of 2024, effective 15 February 2025) a reverse-charge mechanism means VAT-registered businesses trading precious metals and stones don't charge each other VAT at the till; the buyer self-accounts in their return.
Source: ClearTax – VAT on Gold in UAE ↗
The UAE introduced its first federal corporate tax for financial years starting on or after 1 June 2023: 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it.
Wikipedia: '0% for Taxable Income not exceeding AED 375,000' and '9% for Taxable Income exceeding AED 375,000'; 'The UAE Corporate Tax Regime became effective for financial years starting on or after 1 June 2023'; Qualifying Free Zone Persons and Small Business Relief can keep the 0% band.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in the United Arab Emirates ↗
The UAE 'does not levy income tax on individuals', in the words of its official government portal; the federal taxes are the 5% VAT, excise tax on goods deemed harmful to health, and the corporate tax.
The UAE Government portal (u.ae): 'The UAE does not levy income tax on individuals'; the UAE 'levies 5 per cent value added tax on the purchase of goods and services'; excise tax applies to 'specific goods that are harmful to health'; corporate tax is charged 'on the net income or profit of corporations and other entities from their business'.
Source: The United Arab Emirates Government portal — Taxation ↗

Saudi Arabia

Introduced 2018 (1 January 2018). Saudi Arabia introduced VAT at 5% on 1 January 2018 under the 2016 GCC Common VAT Framework Agreement, a deliberate move to diversify revenue away from oil under Vision 2030; it and the UAE were the first two Gulf states to switch it on, both on the same day.

Saudi Arabia tripled its VAT rate from 5% to 15% on 1 July 2020 — one of the steepest single VAT jumps any major economy has made.
The hike was announced on 11 May 2020 to shore up state finances as COVID-19 and collapsing oil prices battered the budget; it took effect on 1 July 2020.
Source: Deloitte Middle East ↗
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman publicly called the 15% VAT a 'painful measure' and promised it was temporary — targeted to fall back to 5–10% within one to five years.
In a televised Vision 2030 fifth-anniversary interview in late April 2021 he said it was 'painful for me personally,' that it would last 'a year, maximum five years,' and that the target was 'between 5 to 10 percent.' The rate has nonetheless stayed at 15% ever since.
Source: Arab News (full interview transcript) ↗
Saudis lost a perk and gained a tax in the same breath: the same May 2020 package that tripled VAT also suspended the 1,000-riyal monthly cost-of-living allowance paid to state workers.
VAT rose from 1 July 2020 while the allowance was suspended from 1 June 2020, together part of roughly 100 billion riyals of austerity measures affecting about 1.5 million state employees.
Source: Gulf News ↗
Just months after tripling VAT, Saudi Arabia pulled property sales out of the VAT system entirely — exempting real estate from the 15% VAT and replacing it with a separate 5% Real Estate Transaction Tax.
A Royal Decree of October 2020 created RETT; all real estate transactions after 4 October 2020 became VAT-exempt and subject instead to 5% RETT, cutting the tax on a home transfer from 15% to 5% to protect the property market.
Source: EY Global Tax Alert ↗
Every B2C receipt in Saudi Arabia must now carry a cryptographically-stamped QR code, and businesses report the sale to a government platform called 'Fatoora' within 24 hours of issuing the invoice.
ZATCA's mandatory e-invoicing system (Phase 1 'Generation' from 4 December 2021, real-time Phase 2 'Integration' rolled out in waves from 1 January 2023) makes QR codes compulsory on simplified invoices so the VAT can be verified on the spot.
Source: ZATCA (Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority) roll-out phases ↗
Saudi Arabia is one of six Muslim-majority countries where zakat — the Islamic alms levy, customarily 2.5% of capital assets — is obligatory and collected by the state, and income itself is subject to zakat there.
Wikipedia: Saudi Arabia is listed among six countries where 'zakat is obligatory and collected by the state' (its status shown as 'Mandatory', as of 2015); 'Income is subject to zakat in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia'; the customary rate on capital assets is 2.5% (one-fortieth).
Source: Wikipedia — Zakat ↗

Japan

Introduced 1989 (3% rate from 1 April 1989; raised to 5% in April 1997, 8% in April 2014, 10% in October 2019). Japan took a full decade and three prime ministers to enact a broad consumption tax: Masayoshi Ohira's 1979 "general consumption tax" was abandoned after a bruising 1979 general election, Yasuhiro Nakasone's 1987 "sales tax" bill collapsed in May 1987 under public opposition, and Noboru Takeshita finally pushed the 3% tax through the Diet in December 1988, effective 1 April 1989.

It took three prime ministers and roughly a decade to pass: Ohira's 1979 tax was abandoned after a public backlash at the October 1979 general election, Nakasone's 'sales tax' bill collapsed in May 1987, and only Takeshita finally got the 3% tax through the Diet in December 1988.
Each earlier attempt was abandoned in the face of fierce public backlash before the tax finally took effect on 1 April 1989.
Source: Nippon.com — The Political History of Japan's Consumption Tax ↗
The tax helped wreck the ruling party: months after the 3% tax launched, the LDP lost its Upper House majority for the first time in the July 1989 election, with tax anger compounding the Recruit bribery scandal that had already forced Takeshita to resign.
It was the first time the Liberal Democratic Party lost the popular vote in a national election since its 1955 founding (the vote was held 23 July 1989).
Source: Wikipedia — 1989 Japanese House of Councillors election ↗
Whether your convenience-store bento is taxed 8% or 10% runs largely on the honor system: big chains won't ask, so you're supposed to volunteer that you'll eat at the in-store counter so the clerk charges the extra 2%.
Since the 2019 split rate, takeout food is 8% but eating in is a 'restaurant service' at 10%; instead of quizzing every customer, stores post signs asking shoppers to self-declare — and one investigation found eight or nine of ten customers pay the takeout rate yet use the eat-in space anyway.
Source: Unseen Japan — Why Japan's Combini Eat-In Rules are Confusing ↗
Bottled water is taxed at 8% but tap water at 10% — because tap water 'can also be used in washing machines and toilets' and so isn't legally a foodstuff.
The same logic produces other oddities: mirin (sweet cooking sake) is 10% as alcohol, but a <1% alcohol 'mirin-style' seasoning gets the 8% food rate.
Source: Nippon.com — Japan's Consumption Tax Hike: Exceptions and Inclusions ↗
A snack-with-a-toy boxed set qualifies for the cheaper 8% food rate only if the food is at least two-thirds of the product and the total price is no more than 10,000 yen — otherwise it's taxed at 10%.
This means a model kit bundled with a few candies tips over to 10%, but a snack with a small toy can stay at 8%.
Source: Nippon.com — Japan's Consumption Tax Hike: Exceptions and Inclusions ↗
Japan's 'hometown tax' lets city dwellers redirect part of their taxes to a rural town of their choice: donate, bear ¥2,000 yourself, deduct the rest from income and residence tax — and get a thank-you gift.
Wikipedia: the system 'allows taxpayers who live in urban areas to contribute to rural areas in return for a tax credit from income tax and residence tax'; announced by Yoshihide Suga in 2007 and legislated in spring 2008; since 2019 return gifts must be local products and 'the percentage of the donation returned is limited to under 30%'.
Source: Wikipedia — Hometown tax ↗
Japan's national income tax climbs in seven steps from 5% to 45%, the top rate applying above ¥40 million; employers withhold it from salaries and pay it over, while the self-employed file a 'kakutei shinkoku' return.
Wikipedia: 'The Japanese income tax system has a progressive tax rate, that increases in stages as income increases', with a table running from 5% to 45% for income above ¥40,000,000; a company 'deducts income tax from your salary in advance and collectively pays the tax on your behalf'; self-employed people file a 確定申告 (kakutei shinkoku).
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Japan ↗

South Korea

Introduced 1977 (at a 10% standard rate). South Korea introduced VAT in 1977 to consolidate the eight indirect taxes then in force into a single tax — the first full value-added tax in Asia. It launched at 10%, and that is still the rate today.

South Korea set its VAT at 10% in 1977 and has never moved it — close to half a century at exactly the same rate, while the OECD average climbed to 19.3%.
The OECD records it plainly: VAT was introduced in Korea in 1977 at a standard rate of 10.0% and has remained at this rate throughout. Korea still squeezes more out of it than most — its VAT Revenue Ratio of 0.73 in 2022 was well above the OECD average of 0.58, because the base is broad and enforcement is tight.
Source: OECD Consumption Tax Trends — Korea ↗

China

Introduced 1994 (modern VAT); the parallel Business Tax survived until 1 May 2016. China's modern VAT dates from the 1994 tax-sharing reform, but for two decades it covered goods while services sat under a separate, cascading Business Tax. Closing that split — the reform known as "B2V" — started as a Shanghai-only pilot in 2012, went nationwide in 2013, and finished on 1 May 2016, when construction, finance, lifestyle services and real estate all switched across and the Business Tax disappeared from the tax system altogether.

Merging China's two parallel consumption taxes took four years and ended on a single day: on 1 May 2016 construction, finance, lifestyle services and real estate switched to VAT together, and the old Business Tax ceased to exist.
The changeover began as a Shanghai pilot in 2012 and went nationwide in 2013. It was billed as China's most significant tax reform in over two decades, and the expansion of VAT was expected to cut tax payments by RMB 500 billion (about US$77 billion) in 2016 alone.
Source: China Briefing — An Overview of China's VAT Reform ↗
China turned its tax receipts into scratch-and-win tickets: the official 'fapiao' carries metallic patches you scratch off for prizes from 5 to 50,000 yuan, so shoppers have a reason to demand the receipt that puts the sale on the books.
The scheme started in Haikou in 1998 and reached 80 major cities by 2002. That year the prizes paid out came to about 30 million yuan while the receipts brought in roughly 900 million yuan of tax — about thirty yuan collected for every yuan given away.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor — How China got businesses to pay taxes: scratch-n-win tickets ↗
China's individual income tax law dates only from 1 September 1980; today it runs in seven brackets from 3% to 45%, and a foreigner becomes taxable on worldwide income after more than 183 days in the country in a year.
Wikipedia: 'China's individual income tax system was thus established' after the law was adopted on 1 September 1980; the tax is progressive 'from 3 percent to 45 percent'; non-domiciled individuals are 'taxed on worldwide income should they be present in mainland China for more than 183 days', otherwise only on China-sourced income.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in China ↗
China's 2018 reform lifted the monthly tax-free threshold to ¥5,000 from 1 October 2018 and, from 1 January 2019, added deductions for children's schooling, big medical bills, mortgage interest or rent, and elderly care.
Wikipedia: the reform passed in August 2018 set the threshold at '60,000 yuan per year, or 5,000 yuan per month', effective 1 October 2018; from 1 January 2019 'the taxpayer may claim deductions for the education of dependent children', continuing education, major medical expenses, mortgage interest or rent, and elderly parent care.
Source: Wikipedia — Income tax in China ↗

Hong Kong

Introduced n/a — Hong Kong has never had a general consumption tax. Hong Kong came closer than most low-tax jurisdictions to adopting a consumption tax and then stopped. The government opened a nine-month public consultation on a 5% Goods and Services Tax on 19 July 2006, arguing that the territory's tax base was too narrow. The debate went badly, and the plan was dropped on 5 December 2006 — less than five months into the nine — and has never been formally revisited.

Hong Kong once put a 5% GST out for a nine-month public consultation — then abandoned it after less than five, before the consultation had even finished.
The consultation opened on 19 July 2006 and the plan was dropped on 5 December 2006. Financial Secretary Henry Tang's explanation was simply that the argument had not been won: it was clear, he said, that the government had not been able to convince the majority to accept a GST as the main option for the tax-base problem.
Source: Wikipedia — Goods and services tax (Hong Kong) ↗
Hong Kong taxes by source, not residence: only income arising in or derived from Hong Kong is taxed, salaries tax runs from 2% to 17%, and capital gains fall outside profits tax altogether.
Wikipedia: 'Hong Kong uses only the territorial source jurisdiction and disregards the concept of residence'; 'Taxable income above 200,000 Hong Kong dollars is subjected to an income tax rate of 17%'; capital gains fall outside Profits Tax, though whether a particular gain is capital in nature can be debatable; 'No turnover tax (e.g. Value-Added Tax and Goods and Services Tax) has been imposed in Hong Kong.'
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Hong Kong ↗

Taiwan

Introduced 1951 (the Uniform Invoice receipt system); the business tax became a credit-invoice VAT in 1986. Taiwan's most distinctive tax idea arrived decades before its VAT. From 1 January 1951 every registered business had to issue a standardised government receipt — the Uniform Invoice — and each one doubled as a lottery ticket, giving shoppers a reason to insist on getting one. The business tax was converted into a value-added tax at 5% in 1986, but the receipt lottery has run continuously ever since 1951.

Taiwan has been running a national lottery on shop receipts since 1 January 1951: every standardised 'Uniform Invoice' is a ticket, so customers demand receipts and sales end up on the books. Tax revenue rose 75% in the first year.
The Finance Ministry collected NT$51 million in 1951 against NT$29 million in 1950. Draws are held on the 25th of every odd-numbered month, and the top special prize was lifted from NT$2 million to NT$10 million in 2011.
Source: Wikipedia — Uniform Invoice ↗
You can hand your lottery odds to a good cause at the till: Taiwanese shoppers are able to donate their receipts to charity at the point of sale, so the nonprofit claims any prize instead of the buyer.
Eight prize tiers run from the NT$10 million special prize down to NT$200. Paper slips are increasingly optional — shoppers show a QR code at the register or let the transaction ride on a linked credit card, and the bank tells them if they have won.
Source: ABC News (Australia) — Taiwan's cunning tax compliance makes most shopping receipts a ticket in a lottery ↗
Taiwan dropped its 45% top income-tax bracket from the 2018 tax year, leaving five rates — 5%, 12%, 20%, 30% and 40% — and a stay of 183 days or more in a year makes you a tax resident.
Wikipedia: 'The 45% income tax bracket was dropped from the 2018 tax year onwards'; the 2026 table lists 5%, 12%, 20%, 30% and 40%; residency applies to anyone domiciled in Taiwan or who stays 'for 183 days or longer in a taxable year'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Taiwan ↗

Malaysia

Introduced 2018 (SST reinstated 1 September 2018, after the GST introduced in 2015 was scrapped). Malaysia is the rare country that adopted a modern broad-based GST and then took it back out again. GST started on 1 April 2015 at 6%; scrapping it became a central promise of the Pakatan Harapan campaign, and when the coalition won the May 2018 general election the rate was cut to 0% within weeks, on 1 June 2018. The older Sales and Service Tax returned on 1 September 2018, and it is Malaysia's consumption tax today.

Malaysia introduced a 6% GST in 2015 and abolished it three years later — the rate went to 0% on 1 June 2018, weeks after an election fought partly over the tax, and the levy was repealed outright that September.
After Pakatan Harapan won the 2018 general election, the incoming government zero-rated GST and brought back the older Sales and Service Tax from 1 September 2018.
Source: Wikipedia — Goods and Services Tax (Malaysia) ↗
The gap between the two taxes gave Malaysians a genuine three-month tax holiday — one consumption tax switched off before the next switched on — putting an estimated RM11 billion back in shoppers' hands.
GST sat at 0% for the whole of June, July and August 2018 while the replacement Sales and Service Tax waited in the wings for 1 September, and big-ticket buying surged in the window.
Source: The Star — Zero GST to free RM11bil for M'sians during 3-month tax holiday before SST ↗

Thailand

Introduced 1992 (replacing the old business tax). Thailand's Revenue Code still sets VAT at 10%. Almost nobody has ever paid that: the rate has been held down to 7% by a rolling series of royal decrees, first issued in 1999 and renewed ever since, so the "temporary" reduction is now older than most Thai businesses.

Thailand's VAT is legally 10% — and has been charged at 7% since 1999, because a temporary royal-decree reduction has been renewed over and over for more than two decades.
Across 34 years Thailand has issued 23 royal decrees on the VAT rate, 21 of them cutting it from the statutory 10% to 7%. The Cabinet approved yet another one-year extension in July 2026, running to 30 September 2027.
Source: The Nation (Thailand) — Tracing Thailand's 34 years of VAT cuts through 23 royal decrees ↗
Thailand's personal income tax exempts the first 150,000 baht and rises through 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% to 35% on income over 4 million baht; you count as resident after more than 180 days in a calendar year.
Thai Revenue Department: the rate table runs '0-150,000' Exempt, 5% to 300,000, 10% to 500,000, 15% to 750,000, 20% to 1,000,000, 25% to 2,000,000, 30% to 4,000,000 and 35% 'Over 4,000,000'; 'Resident means any person residing in Thailand for a period or periods aggregating more than 180 days in any tax (calendar) year'.
Source: The Revenue Department of Thailand — Personal Income Tax ↗

Indonesia

Indonesia's VAT rise to 12% was rewritten on New Year's Eve: with one day to go, President Prabowo announced the extra point would apply only to luxury goods — private jets, yachts, cruise ships, very expensive houses — leaving everything else at 11%.
The announcement came on 31 December 2024 for a change due on 1 January 2025, reversing what finance ministry officials had signalled weeks earlier. Staples such as rice, meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, milk and drinking water, plus education, health and public transport, stayed exempt.
Source: Cabinet Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia — President Prabowo: 12% VAT Imposed Only on Luxury Goods, Services ↗
Indonesia's income tax starts above a tax-free Rp54 million a year and runs from 5% up to 35% on income over Rp5 billion; companies pay a flat 22% on domestic and foreign-sourced income alike.
Wikipedia's table: 0% up to Rp54,000,000 ('Tax Free'), 5% to Rp60 million, 15% to Rp250 million, 25% to Rp500 million, 30% to Rp5 billion and 35% above; 'Companies in Indonesia are taxed at a rate of 22%, for both domestic and international sourced income.'
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Indonesia ↗

Switzerland

Introduced 1995 (1 January 1995, at a 6.5% standard rate). Switzerland was among the last countries in Western Europe to adopt a value-added tax, and not for want of trying: three earlier attempts were rejected at the ballot box before voters approved one. VAT started on 1 January 1995 at 6.5%, replacing the old goods turnover tax. Because the rates sit in the federal constitution, every increase since has needed its own nationwide vote.

Swiss VAT rates are written into the federal constitution, so no government can raise them alone — each increase goes to a nationwide vote, and three earlier attempts to introduce a VAT at all were rejected at the ballot box before one finally passed.
Voters have since approved rises tied to specific purposes: old-age and disability insurance in 1999, the transalpine railway in 2001, and a seven-year top-up for the disability insurance gap in 2011.
Source: SWI swissinfo.ch — Value added tax: the Swiss government's all-purpose tool ↗
That ballot-box brake shows up in the numbers: in three decades the Swiss standard rate has travelled from 6.5% to 8.1% — a grand total of 1.6 percentage points — against an OECD average of 19.3%.
The OECD records that VAT was introduced in Switzerland in 1995 at 6.5%, and that the minimum and maximum standard rates since then have been 6.5% and 8.1%. Reduced rates of 2.6% and 3.8% sit below it.
Source: OECD Consumption Tax Trends — Switzerland ↗
Switzerland taxes income three times over — by the Confederation, the canton and the commune — and each canton sets its own rates, so in one comparison the top rate ranged from 12.3% in Zug to 32.3% in Jura.
Wikipedia: taxes are 'levied by the Swiss Confederation, the cantons and the municipalities'; the federal direct tax tops out at 'the maximum rate of 11.5%'; cantons 'remain free to set their tax rates', and Zug had the lowest maximum individual rate among major cities at 12.3% against 32.3% in Jura (2011 figures); cantons also levy a wealth tax of roughly 0.3% to 0.5% on net worth.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Switzerland ↗
In Switzerland the profit from selling shares you hold privately is tax-free: capital gains on private movable property are not taxed at all, though cantons do tax gains on real estate.
Wikipedia: 'capital gains on private property (such as profits from the sale of shares) are tax-free', except where cantons tax real estate gains.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Switzerland ↗
The Swiss federal government's power to levy its direct tax and VAT is constitutionally temporary: it expires in 2035, and renewing it takes a nationwide referendum carried by a majority of both voters and cantons.
Wikipedia: the federal authority to levy taxes is time-limited — the constitution causes it 'to expire in 2035' — and renewal requires a constitutional amendment approved by popular referendum with a majority of voters and of cantons.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Switzerland ↗

Sweden

Introduced 1969 (at a standard rate of 11.11%). Sweden's VAT — universally called "moms" — launched in 1969 at the distinctly un-round rate of 11.11%. The oddity comes from the arithmetic of a tax quoted on the tax-inclusive price rather than the net one. It has climbed a long way since, reaching today's 25% in 1990.

Sweden's VAT launched in 1969 at 11.11% — not a rounding error, but the consequence of quoting the rate against a tax-inclusive price rather than the net one.
The OECD's record shows the standard rate has ranged between 17.65% and 25.0% since; it reached 25% in 1990, up from 23.5% the year before, and Sweden still runs reduced rates of 0%, 6% and 12%.
Source: OECD Consumption Tax Trends — Sweden ↗
Swedes can sidestep capital gains tax entirely with an ISK investment savings account, which charges a small yearly tax on the account's value — generally under 1% — instead of taxing each gain.
Wikipedia: with an ISK a private individual pays 'a yearly tax instead of the capital gains tax', generally less than 1% of the account's current value. Municipal income tax in 2024 ranged from 28.98% to 35.30%, with a 20% national tax on incomes over SEK 614,000.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Sweden ↗
Sweden separated church and state in 2000, yet church fees of up to 2% of income are still collected through the tax system from members — and everyone, member or not, pays a burial fee.
Wikipedia's Church tax article: in Sweden church fees vary by municipality and can reach 2%; church and state separated in 2000, but everyone pays a burial fee.
Source: Wikipedia — Church tax ↗

Norway

Norway made electric cars completely VAT-free, and it worked almost too well: by 2025 electric vehicles were about 95% of new car sales, and the exemption was costing roughly NOK 17.5 billion (about €1.5 billion) a year.
Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg put it simply — with an electric car share of 95% this year, the goal has been achieved — as the government moved to wind the break back. The electric vehicle association countered that seven out of ten cars on Norwegian roads still run on fossil fuel.
Source: electrive — Norway to phase out electric vehicle VAT exemption from 2027 ↗
The Norwegian exemption is being retired by shrinking it rather than switching it off: VAT is now waived only on the first NOK 300,000 of an electric car's price, down from NOK 500,000, with everything above that taxed at 25%.
The cap was NOK 500,000 from 2023, fell to NOK 300,000 on 1 January 2026, and parliament has asked for NOK 150,000 in 2027 and nothing at all from 2028 — so an identical car gets a little more expensive each year rather than jumping overnight.
Source: Grant Thornton Norway — Changes in the Norwegian VAT regulations from 2026 ↗
In Norway anyone can look up what a neighbour earned: the tax lists showing net income, net wealth and tax assessed are searchable online — but every search is logged, and the person you looked up can see your name.
Skatteetaten: you 'must log in to search the tax lists' and be 16 or older; 'you can see who has read your tax information'; 'It is not possible to reserve yourself from the tax list'; the lists are published in the autumn with the tax assessments and 'will remain available at skatteetaten.no for a period of one year'. Its press office noted the 2022 lists went live at 05:00 on 6 December 2023, and that at peak there were over 16 million searches in a year.
Source: Skatteetaten (Norwegian Tax Administration) — Search the tax lists ↗
Norway's oil companies face a marginal tax rate of 78% on petroleum profits — a special petroleum tax stacked on top of the ordinary company income tax.
Wikipedia: 'the marginal tax rate on the excess return within the petroleum sector is 78%', combining a 51% special tax with the 23% ordinary income tax in the 2018 figures given; Norway also levies a wealth tax at both municipal (0.7%) and national (0.4%) level as of 2023.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Norway ↗

Denmark

Introduced 1967 (at a 10% standard rate). Denmark adopted VAT in 1967 at 10% and has raised it steadily to today's 25%, reached in 1992. What makes the Danish system unusual is what it never built: while every other EU country carved out a ladder of reduced rates, Denmark kept one rate for almost everything, with a zero rate for newspapers and periodicals and essentially nothing in between.

Denmark charges 25% on almost everything and has no reduced rate at all — no cheaper band for food, medicine or children's clothes. The only step below the standard rate is a zero rate for newspapers and periodicals.
VAT was introduced in Denmark in 1967 at 10% and reached 25% in 1992, up from 22% the year before. Since 1967 the standard rate has ranged between 15% and 25%.
Source: OECD Consumption Tax Trends — Denmark ↗
Books are the first crack in that single-rate wall: from 1 July 2026 Denmark zero-rates books, dropping them from 25% to nothing, as a response to falling reading rates.
Physical books, e-books and audiobooks all qualify, and suppliers keep the right to deduct input VAT. Streaming and subscription access does not count, because that is treated as a right of use rather than a sale. Whether something is a 'book' turns largely on whether it carries an ISBN and could plausibly exist in print.
Source: BDO — Denmark: Updates on Zero-Rate VAT on Books ↗
Denmark's income tax is capped by a 'skatteloft' — a legal ceiling of 52.05% on the combined municipal and national rate — but add the 8% labour-market contribution taken first and the top marginal rate reaches 55.9%.
Wikipedia: the maximum effective marginal rate on labour income in 2019 was '55.9%', combining the 8% labour market contribution with the 'tax ceiling' (skatteloft) of 52.05%; 'income tax was introduced in Denmark via a fundamental tax reform in 1903'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Denmark ↗
Members of the Danish National Church pay a church tax of roughly 0.7% of income — but Statistics Denmark refuses to count it as a tax, classing it as a 'voluntary transfer from households to the state'.
Wikipedia: the exact rate varies by municipality; Statistics Denmark does not classify the church tax as a proper tax, describing it as a 'voluntary transfer from households to the state'. According to the OECD, 'Denmark had the highest tax to GDP ratio of all its member countries in 2021', at about 47.4%.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Denmark ↗

Finland

In Finland the tax paid by every person and company is public information — earned income, capital income and tax are all open to request, and newsrooms routinely pull the records in bulk.
Wikipedia: 'The amount of tax paid by each person and company is public information'; 'Capital income and earned income are both public information, while taxation on dividends from unlisted companies is not'; targeted requests are free, and larger record requests are made for journalistic purposes. Municipal income tax in 2025 ranged from 4.7% (Kauniainen) to 19.7% (Kökar), and the top state rate was 44.25% above €150,000.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Finland ↗
Every Finnish employee has a 'tax card' (verokortti) showing a personal withholding rate and an income ceiling; the employer withholds at that rate until pay passes the ceiling, then at the card's higher additional rate.
Finnish Tax Administration (vero.fi): the 'tax rate' is 'the percentage of withholding' shown on the card, and the income ceiling is 'the max. amount your employer can pay you before an additional withholding must be made'; the Tax Administration 'sends you a basic tax card at the turn of the year', and a new card can be requested in MyTax if the estimate is wrong.
Source: Finnish Tax Administration (vero.fi) — Tax rate and income ceiling ↗
Members of Finland's two national churches pay a church tax on earned income — 1.0% to 2.0% in Lutheran parishes and 1.75% to 2.25% in Orthodox parishes in 2025 — collected alongside state and municipal tax.
Wikipedia: members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church or the Orthodox Church pay church tax on net earned income; in 2025 Lutheran parish rates ranged from 1.0% to 2.0% and Orthodox parish rates from 1.75% to 2.25%. Finnish state income tax is progressive, from 12.64% to 44.25% in 2025.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Finland ↗

Greece

Where you buy something in Greece can cut its VAT by 30%: from 1 January 2026, 19 small and remote islands pay 17% instead of 24%, and 9% instead of 13%.
The discount covers islands such as Kastellorizo, Symi, Patmos, Karpathos, Ikaria, Psara and Samothrace, and comes alongside a phased abolition of property tax on primary residences in small settlements — a deliberate attempt to make living on a far-flung island viable.
Source: GTP Headlines — VAT Cut for Greek Remote Islands to Take Effect from January 2026 ↗

Portugal

Portugal pays you to ask for a receipt: quote your tax number at the till and every €10 of invoices earns a coupon in the state-run 'Fatura da Sorte' draw, with weekly prizes of €35,000 in Treasury Certificates.
Any individual with a Portuguese tax number is entered automatically — no form to fill in — and two extraordinary draws in June and December each hand out three prizes of €50,000. Winners have 90 days to claim at their local tax office.
Source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (Portal das Finanças) — Fatura da Sorte FAQ ↗
Portugal's Non-Habitual Resident regime, created on 23 September 2009, taxed high-value professions at a flat 20% and foreign pensions at 10%; it closed to newcomers on 31 December 2023, but holders keep it ten years.
Wikipedia: NHR was created under the Investment Tax Code approved on 23 September 2009, when 'a new type of residency, for tax purposes was created'; certain high-added-value jobs are taxed at a flat 20% and foreign-source pensions at 10%; the programme 'officially ended for new applicants on December 31, 2023', while those registered before then 'retain benefits for their full 10-year period'. Mainland IRS rates run from 12.5% on the first €8,342 to 48% above €86,634.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Portugal ↗

South Africa

Introduced 1991. VAT arrived in South Africa in 1991, in the final years of apartheid and in the middle of the negotiations that would end it — and it arrived over fierce objection. On 4 and 5 November 1991 the Congress of South African Trade Unions called a two-day national stayaway against taxing basic foodstuffs, health care and essential services. Three and a half decades later the rate is still 15%, and an attempt to nudge it higher in 2025 collapsed within weeks.

South Africa's VAT was met with a two-day national stayaway: on 4 and 5 November 1991 COSATU called a general strike against taxing basic foodstuffs, health care and essential services, and about 80% of the manufacturing workforce joined it.
COSATU and the ANC called the result a referendum held in the streets. The government put the cost at an estimated R25,000 million and 70,000 jobs.
Source: South African History Online — COSATU leads an anti-VAT strike ↗
A VAT rise can be announced, legislated for, programmed into tills — and then called off with a week to spare: South Africa's move from 15% to 15.5% was due on 1 May 2025 and was reversed on 24 April.
The revenue service had to tell vendors to keep charging 15% rather than 15.5% from 1 May, after the increase announced in the 2025 Budget ran into opposition inside the governing coalition and a court challenge.
Source: South African Revenue Service — Practical implication on Finance Minister's decision to reverse VAT ↗
South Africa introduced capital gains tax only on 1 October 2001 — and it is not a separate tax: 40% of an individual's net gain above the R40,000 annual exclusion is added to taxable income, 80% for companies.
Wikipedia: CGT was 'First introduced on 1 October 2001'; '40% of the net gain exceeding R 40 000 exclusion for individuals is added to their taxable income'; 'For companies, close corporations and trusts 80% is added'.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in South Africa ↗
South Africa's tax year ends on the last day of February, not December — the 2024/25 year ran from 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025 — and income tax there dates back to 1914.
Wikipedia: the 2024/25 personal income tax table covers 'the period 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025'; the top bracket is 45% on 'R1 817 001 and above'; 'Income tax in South Africa was first introduced in 1914.'
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in South Africa ↗

Brazil

Introduced 2023 (Constitutional Amendment 132, promulgated 20 December 2023; the new taxes phase in from 2026). Brazil argued about how to tax consumption for roughly three decades before Constitutional Amendment 132 was promulgated on 20 December 2023. It replaces five federal, state and municipal taxes with a dual value-added tax — the federal CBS and the state-and-municipal IBS — plus a Selective Tax on goods judged harmful to health or the environment. The changeover is deliberately slow: both systems run side by side from 2026, and the old taxes only disappear in 2033.

Brazil is running two entire consumption-tax systems at once — the old five taxes and the new two — and will keep doing so until 2033, because untangling three tiers of government from the same tax base takes a seven-year transition.
Constitutional Amendment 132, promulgated on 20 December 2023 after some 30 years of discussion, folds the federal PIS, Cofins and IPI, the state ICMS and the municipal ISS into a dual VAT: the federal CBS plus the state-and-municipal IBS, with a Selective Tax alongside for goods considered harmful.
Source: Wikipedia — Brazilian tax reform ↗
The reason for all that upheaval: on the World Bank's Paying Taxes measure Brazil ranked 181st of 190 countries, with a typical company spending about 2,038 hours a year simply complying — roughly double the next most demanding country, Bolivia.
Companies in Mexico and Chile spent an average of 291 and 286 hours on the same exercise. Brazil's overall tax burden was reckoned to reach as much as 68% of a company's total income.
Source: International Tax Review — The challenges of tax compliance in Brazil ↗
Brazil's income tax was created by Law 4,625 of 31 December 1922 — 'Fica instituído o imposto geral sobre a renda' — but collection only began in 1924, and the first filing deadline was pushed back to 14 March 1925.
Receita Federal's history: the 1922 law directed the Executive to prepare regulations so that 'a arrecadação do imposto se torne effectiva em 1924'; the regulation came as Decree 16,581 of 4 September 1924 and the first deadline moved from 14 November 1924 to 14 March 1925 because the instructions arrived too late. The 1924 budget law set rates from 1% on incomes between 20:000$ and 30:000$ (réis) to 8% above 500:000$, with the lowest incomes exempt.
Source: Receita Federal do Brasil — Memória: 1922 a 1924, a instituição do imposto de renda no Brasil ↗
Brazil's personal income tax (IRPF) has four rates — 7.5%, 15%, 22.5% and 27.5% — with the lowest monthly incomes exempt; the tax was created in 1922 under President Artur Bernardes and first charged in 1924.
Portuguese Wikipedia: 'A criação do imposto atual ocorreu em 1922 durante a presidência de Artur Bernardes', charged only from 1924; the 2024 table lists 'Até R$ 2.259,20' as exempt (R$2,112.00 in 2023), then 7.5%, 15%, 22.5% and 27.5%.
Source: Wikipédia (PT) — Imposto de Renda ↗

Mexico

Mexico halves its VAT near the border: a presidential decree hands businesses in the northern frontier municipalities a credit worth 50% of the 16% rate, so the tax they actually charge is 8%.
The decree was published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 31 December 2018 and took effect on 1 January 2019, covering listed municipalities in Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. It was written to run only through 2019 and 2020, and has been extended repeatedly since.
Source: Diario Oficial de la Federación — Decreto de estímulos fiscales región fronteriza norte ↗
Mexico's income tax law in force today took effect on 1 January 2002, replacing a statute that had stood since 1981; individuals pay ISR on a scale rising to 35%, companies a flat 30%.
Spanish Wikipedia: the law 'entró en vigor el 1 de enero de 2002', replacing a law in force since 1981; personal rates run 'desde el 0% al 35%' and corporate tax is 'del 30% para todas las personas morales'.
Source: Wikipedia (ES) — Impuesto sobre la renta (México) ↗

Colombia

Colombia ran national VAT-free days: on eight scattered dates between 2020 and 2022, clothes, appliances, toys and school and sports gear could be bought with no VAT at all.
Three days fell in 2020, three in 2021 and two in 2022, introduced by Decree 682 of 2020 to revive spending after the pandemic. Central bank research found the exempt goods did sell better than non-exempt ones, but that the effect was transitory — shoppers largely brought purchases forward rather than buying more overall.
Source: Banco de la República — VAT exemption days in Colombia: How did household consumption respond? ↗
Colombia writes its tax thresholds in 'UVT' — a tax value unit updated at least once a year — so the law never needs rewriting for inflation; it also skims 0.4% off every financial transaction.
Wikipedia: the UVT value 'is updated at least every year' (33,156 pesos in 2018); 'A 0.4% tax rate is imposed on all financial transactions'; a patrimony tax 'requires the annual payment of 1% of the total patrimony' above a set threshold.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Colombia ↗

Israel

Introduced 1976 (at an 8% standard rate). Israel introduced VAT in 1976 at 8%. Since then the standard rate has moved between 8% and 18%, the ceiling it returned to on 1 January 2025. Two long-standing carve-outs survive every change: fresh fruit and vegetables, and the resort city of Eilat, which is treated as outside the VAT system altogether.

Buy a fridge in Eilat and there is no VAT on it: the Red Sea resort city sits outside Israel's VAT system entirely, and fresh fruit and vegetables are untaxed everywhere in the country.
Everything else moved from 17% to 18% on 1 January 2025 to help close a budget deficit that had reached 8.1% of GDP, at an estimated cost to a household of 1,000–2,000 shekels a year.
Source: JNS — Israel raises VAT to 18% as part of effort to rein in deficit ↗
Israel's VAT started life at 8% in 1976 and has never once been set above 18% — the exact ceiling it climbed back to at the start of 2025.
The OECD's record shows the minimum and maximum standard rates since 1976 have been 8.0% and 18.0%. Israel also runs a zero rate on a number of goods and services plus a specific regional rate — the Eilat exemption.
Source: OECD Consumption Tax Trends — Israel ↗
New immigrants to Israel and returning residents pay no Israeli tax for ten years on income earned outside Israel.
Wikipedia: 'Returning residents and new immigrants are exempt from taxes for 10 years on income generated outside Israel'; the 2024 income tax table runs from 10% to 50%, the top rate applying to income 'over 721,560' shekels a year, and the corporate rate was cut to 24% on 1 January 2017 and 23% on 1 January 2018.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Israel ↗

Poland

Poland's personal income tax has two rates: 12% on income up to PLN 120,000 and 32% on the surplus, after a tax-free amount that was raised to PLN 30,000 in 2022.
Wikipedia: the table lists '0 PLN - 120,000 PLN' at '12% minus tax reducing amount' and 'over 120,000 PLN' at 32% of the surplus; 'The tax-free amount has been increased to 30,000 PLN year' in 2022.
Source: Wikipedia — Taxation in Poland ↗

The collection, answered

Questions people ask about these facts

Where do these facts come from?: Each fact links to its source directly beneath it — a government page, a court record, a statute or a published history — and nothing is included without one. The collection was researched deliberately against those sources rather than lifted from other trivia lists, so a story you have seen elsewhere may read differently here because the record says something different.
Are the rates mentioned in these facts current?: Treat a rate inside a story as history, not a lookup. The year a country introduced its GST does not change; a fact that quotes today’s rate can, and the stories here are not re-verified every time a rate moves. For the current standard and reduced rate in any country, use the tax rates table, which shows the date it was last confirmed against its source.
Which countries are covered?: 36 countries have their own section, most opening with when and why the consumption tax was introduced, followed by the stories. The global oddities section covers the cases that belong to no single country. Coverage follows where a well-sourced story exists, so the largest economies are not always the ones with the most entries.
Can I use this page to work out my own tax?: No — it is the story behind the taxes, not a calculator. For numbers, the free tools cover GST, income tax, company tax, capital gains and more, each stating the rate and source it used. For your own transactions, Fin tracks the GST on each one as it lands so your position is always current. Everything here is general information, not advice.
How is this page different from the tax rates table?: This page explains how the taxes came to be — the elections, court cases and edge cases that shaped them. The rates table is the current numbers: standard and reduced rates, local names, and top income and company rates for every country Fin covers, with a verified date. Read this one for the why, that one for the what.

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