Denmark is the European country with the highest top statutory income tax rate as of 2025, with the Nordic country having a top taxation band of **** percent. Other countries with high taxes on top earners included France, with a top rate of **** percent, Austria, with a top rate of ** percent, and Spain, with a top rate of ** percent. Many countries in Europe have relatively high top income tax rates when compared with other regions globally, as these countries have relatively generous social systems funded by tax incomes. This is particularly the case in Western, Northern, and Central Europe, where the social state is generally stronger. On the other hand, formerly communist countries in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region tend to have lower top income tax rates, with Romania and Bulgaria having the lowest rates in Europe in 2024, with their top income tax brackets both being only ** percent. These countries often have less well-developed social systems, as well as the fact that they must compete to retain their workers against other European countries with higher average wages. In spite of low-income taxes, these countries may take other deductions from employee's wages such as pension and healthcare payments, which may not be included in income taxation as in other European countries.

This dataset provides values for CORPORATE TAX RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

As of 2025, ***** had the highest corporate tax rate in Europe, with a ceiling of ** percent. Germany followed in second place, with a maximum tax rate of ** percent. Hungary and Macedonia hold some of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe.

As of 2023, the average taxation rate for a single person without children who earned an average salary in the European Union was ***** percent of their total earnings. For a two-earner couple without children earning an average salary it was slightly less, at ***** percent, while for a single person without children earning **** times the average salary, the rate of taxation in the EU was *****%. Having children greatly reduced the average rate of taxation, with a one-earner couple with two children in the EU only paying out ***** percent of their gross household earnings in taxes in 2023. Tax rates in Europe are generally quite high, due to the progressive income tax systems set in place during the 20th century in many countries, which require high taxation in order to fund generous social welfare systems. ******* was the country with the highest average rates of taxation in 2023, with a high earning single person without children subject to pay almost half of their gross household earnings out in taxes. Other countries in North-western Europe such as *******, *******, and ********** also top the list for highest income taxation rates in Europe, while ****** was the country in Europe with the lowest average taxation rates in Europe during the same period. In both ******* and ******, single-earner families with two children actually saw the lowest average tax rates, due to the strong pronatalist policies in these countries and tax incentives for traditional single-earner households.

When analyzing the historical PIT rates, it should be noted that in 2000 the average rate was almost 45%. The highest income tax (approx. 60%) was imposed in Belgium, Denmark, as well as in the Netherlands and France. On the other hand, the lowest (25%) rates were recorded in Estonia and Latvia, which were not yet members of the European Union. In the following years, most EU countries rather lowered PIT rates, and the average of this tax in EU countries is 38.6%. The most significant reductions were introduced by Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania and also Hungary. The PIT tax burden differs significantly in the EU countries, as some countries have relatively low rates, but in Denmark, Portugal and Sweden, the PIT tax exceeds 50%.

This dataset provides values for SALES TAX RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The Personal Income Tax Rate in European Union stands at 29.90 percent. This dataset provides - European Union Personal Income Tax Rate- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The Corporate Tax Rate in European Union stands at 17.50 percent. This dataset provides - European Union Corporate Tax Rate- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The average for 2019 based on 43 countries was 37.76 percent. The highest value was in France: 60.7 percent and the lowest value was in North Macedonia: 13 percent. The indicator is available from 2005 to 2019. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Over the period from 1995 to 2023, total annual tax revenues consistently increased from around 2.5 trillion euros in 1995, to almost seven trillion euros in 2023. Only in two years over this 27 year period did tax revenues decline compared to the previous year, in 2009 due to the great recession and in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hungary had the highest standard VAT tax rate in the European Union in 2022, at 27 percent, with Croatia, Sweden and Denmark also having relatively high VAT tax rates of 25 percent. The EU member state with the lowest VAT rate in 2022 was Luxembourg, at 17 percent.

This data shows the number of income earners by income tax rate each year from 2004 to 2018. It shows for each year the number of income earners who are exempt, on Marginal Relief or on the Standard or Higher income tax rate.

We analyze the effects of top tax rates on international migration of football players in 14 European countries since 1985. Both country case studies and multinomial regressions show evidence of strong mobility responses to tax rates, with an elasticity of the number of foreign (domestic) players to the net-of-tax rate around one (around 0.15). We also find evidence of sorting effects (low taxes attract highability players who displace low-ability players) and displacement effects (low taxes on foreigners displace domestic players). Those results can be rationalized in a simple model of migration and taxation with rigid labor demand.

The country in the European Union with the highest implicit taxation rate on consumption was Hungary in 2023, with an implicit tax rate of **%, while Luxembourg was the country with the second highest implicit tax rate at **** percent. Spain was the EU country with the lowest implicit consumption tax rate, at **** percent.

Approximately half of all tax revenues were generated by taxes on labor in the European Union in 2023, with an additional **** percent coming from consumption taxes, and around ** coming from taxes on capital. Sweden, Germany, and Austria were the European countries which generated the greatest revenue from labor taxes, with these countries being prime exemplars of traditional European welfare states which apply highly progressive taxes - i.e. the more income a person earns, the higher the tax bracket they are in - to labor income in order to be able to fund transfers and social services. At the other end of the scale are countries such as Croatia and Bulgaria, which generate the most of their revenues from consumption taxes. These countries tend to have lower rates of income taxation on their citizens and less robust systems of social welfare, therefore, the government funds its activities more from taxes on the consumption of goods and services.

Boundless, the fully compliant Employer of Record platform, compiled and analysed the employment costs in 32 countries within Europe, including gross salary, social and health insurance contributions, income taxes, net pay and more.

To collect this data, Boundless leveraged their internal salary calculators, a resource developed and used by the Boundless Payroll team in collaboration with local payroll partners in each country. This approach enabled Boundless to capture the true costs associated with employing staff in each of the 32 countries, taking into account all applicable regional nuances, and ensure that the findings reflect the latest legal and economic conditions.

Analysis of ‘Tax rate on low wage earners - Unemployment trap’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/29rqta57aajujyiwc8yffq on 30 September 2021.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

The 'unemployment trap' measures what percentage of the gross earnings (after moving into employment) is 'taxed away' by the combined effects of the withdrawal of benefits and higher tax and social security contributions.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The massive expansion of the state in post-war Europe has rested on a greatly enlarged fiscal base, yet little is known about how that fiscal base has evolved. This is surprising in view of the fact that the questions of how governments get money, and from whom they get it, are seen to be two of the most important political issues faced in any modern political economy. While most studies of fiscal history try to provide answers to the first question by analyzing the ideological, political and administrative inputs to tax policy, the project's aim was to provide answers to the second question. The project focused on the outcomes of tax policy; what different households across Western Europe have paid in taxes (income tax and social security contributions) at all points on the income scale since 1958. Since such information is not in the public domain we have used national tax rules and wage rates were used in order to infer what households with particular characteristics would have paid in direct taxes each year since 1958. Using the dynamic spreadsheet EuroPTax, details of the effective rates of income tax and social security contributions paid by different households in all the major European democracies since 1958 are provided for the first time as part of the project.

The benchmark interest rate In the Euro Area was last recorded at 2.15 percent. This dataset provides - Euro Area Interest Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Persons between 16 and 75 years of age living in private households at the time of recruitment