|
|
|
The 10 Most Heavily Taxed Countries in the Developed World |
|
|
The OECD released its tax figures in December. Denmark tops them for a second year: 45.2% of everything the country makes goes to the state. It collects almost none of that as a payroll contribution. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Source: OECD Revenue Statistics 2025, released 9 December 2025. Total tax revenue as a share of GDP, 2024 provisional. Australia and Japan have not reported. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
$1.95 billion changed hands Monday
On Monday, Newmont wrote its biggest rival a check for $1.95 billion.
They'd fought over the same Nevada ground for years.
It ended in one morning.
Newmont bought permission. Barrick can now split its North American mines into a company worth north of $60 billion.
The two largest gold miners on earth just cleared their decks.
They didn't do it to sit still.
The window shuts September 30th.
| What’s Surprising |
Denmark taxes 45.2% of its economy, the highest share in the OECD for a second straight year. Almost none of it is a payroll contribution. Social security contributions raise 0.2% of Danish tax revenue against an OECD average of 25.5%. Danish employees supply 0.04%.
Denmark charges the lot to income tax. Personal income tax raises 57.2% of everything the country collects — the highest share in the OECD, against a 23.7% average and Costa Rica’s 5.7%. One tax pays for the most expensive state on the list.
France 43.5% and Austria 43.4% follow. Norway sits 9th at 40.2%, and 28.8% of what it collects is corporate tax. That is the oil. It is also why Norway posted the OECD’s third-largest fall in 2024, down 1.4 points, as corporate receipts dropped.
| What’s Not Surprising |
Every country in the top ten is European and nine are in the EU. This is not new. In 1965 the range ran from 10.6% in Türkiye to 33.9% in France, and France was already at the top.
The rich Anglosphere sits low. Canada 34.9%, the United Kingdom 34.4%, the United States 25.6% — 29th of the 36 countries that reported 2024 figures. The US is the only OECD member with no value-added tax. VAT supplies 20.5% of the average member’s revenue.
The OECD average reached 34.1%, the highest ever recorded. Ireland is the outlier at 21.7%, down from 27.7% in 2010 — the 2015 restatement of Irish GDP, not a tax cut. Mexico is last at 18.3%.
|
|
|
45.2% Denmark’s tax take, the highest in the OECD for a second year. Mexico, the lowest, takes 18.3%. |
|
|
|
|
|
0.2% Share of Danish tax revenue from social security contributions. The OECD average is 25.5%. Employees supply 0.04%. |
|
|
|
|
|
34.1% The OECD average in 2024, the highest ever recorded across the 38 members. In 1965 it was 24.9%. |
|
|
|
|
|
57.2% Share of Denmark’s revenue raised by personal income tax alone — the OECD’s highest. The average is 23.7%. |
|
|
|
|
|
0% The US share of tax revenue from VAT. It is the only OECD country without one; VAT supplies 20.5% elsewhere. |
|
|
|
|
|
Revenue Statistics 2026 lands in December with final 2024 figures, and Australia and Japan report for the first time. Three things to track. Whether the OECD average holds above 34%. Whether Latvia keeps climbing after a 2.4-point jump. And whether Colombia’s 2.2-point fall — the largest in the OECD, all of it corporate tax — repeats. We’ll be watching. |
