Friday's number: 32.23...

October 25, 2017

...is the percentage due as income tax on the first 48,000 euros earned in a year in Sweden. And the best thing is that you can submit your tax return by text message – no receipts, no tax accountant and hardly any exceptions. The regulations are so simple it's enough to make the downtrodden taxpayers of Germany cry. And in the north, as comparative country studies show, tax morals are particularly high.

Back in the 1970s, tax rates in Sweden were downright crazy; in some cases they could amount to 100% or more of your income together with other items. In the decades that followed, however, tax rates were continuously reduced, a sign of the country's ability to reform. Anyone now earning more than the equivalent of 48,000 euros, however, has to pay an additional 20 percent on that part of their income that lies above this threshold. Yet at 32.23% for the first 48,000 euros, the income tax burden in Sweden is not that much higher than in Germany (around 25% for a single person on a salary of 48,000 euros). The process of submitting your tax return is a much more onerous affair for Germans, however.