The survey's authors point out that the EU countries with the highest taxes don’t have the highest quality of life. The study from Institut Economique Molinari calculated tax burden by taking into account income tax, social insurance contributions and VAT rates. A lot of people when they think of tax on their income they think of income tax, but they don’t take social security contributions into account,” Rogers said. For instance, the highest income tax rate in Sweden is 59.7%, compared to 45% in France. Cypriots lead the pack in the EU, with their tax freedom day way back on March 29th.

Source: The Local July 26, 2016 13:47 UTC