infoz Research · Quarterly report

infoz Tax Burden Index — 2026 edition

A single comparable score for the income-tax burden of 19 jurisdictions, weighted across the salary distribution most real workers occupy. Computed live from the same statutory bracket data that powers our country tax calculators — anyone can reproduce it.

Published 2026-05-07 · 2026 fiscal year · 19 jurisdictions · 3 income bands

Lightest burden

🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates

Effective 0% at $100K

Median (rank 10 of 19)

🇧🇷 Brazil

24.85

Effective 25.4% at $100K

Heaviest burden

🇳🇱 Netherlands

38.05

Effective 39.2% at $100K

Full ranking — lightest to heaviest

Click any country to open its full tax calculator. Effective rates shown are income tax only (federal-equivalent level); they exclude social security, payroll contributions, VAT, and sub-national tax — see methodology below.

#	Country	Burden index	$50K	$100K	$250K	Top marginal
1	🇦🇪AEUnited Arab Emirates	0	0%	0%	0%	0%
2	🇸🇬SGSingapore	7.31	3.6%	7.5%	14.3%	22%
3	🇨🇦CACanada (Federal only)	15.27	10.7%	15.5%	23.9%	33%
4	🇺🇸USUnited States (Federal)	19.75	15.3%	20.8%	26.5%	32%
5	🇮🇪IEIreland	22.19	12.2%	26.1%	34.4%	40%
6	🇯🇵JPJapan	22.22	15.2%	23.6%	33.5%	40%
7	🇫🇷FRFrance	22.72	15.4%	23.9%	35.1%	45%
8	🇮🇳INIndia	23.52	19.9%	24.9%	28%	30%
9	🇰🇷KRKorea	24.44	17.2%	26.1%	35.7%	40%
10	🇧🇷BRBrazil	24.85	23.4%	25.4%	26.7%	27.5%
11	🇲🇽MXMexico	26.1	22.4%	27.2%	31.3%	34%
12	🇦🇺AUAustralia	26.18	19.8%	26.6%	38%	45%
13	🇳🇿NZNew Zealand	26.63	22%	27.5%	34.2%	39%
14	🇬🇧UKUnited Kingdom (England/Wales/NI)	27.36	19.1%	28.6%	41.3%	45%
15	🇩🇪DEGermany	28.67	20.2%	31.8%	39.3%	42%
16	🇮🇹ITItaly	33.04	27.7%	35%	39.8%	43%
17	🇪🇸ESSpain	33.32	27.7%	35.1%	41%	45%
18	🇿🇦ZASouth Africa	33.37	28.3%	34.7%	40.9%	45%
19	🇳🇱NLNetherlands	38.05	33.2%	39.2%	45.4%	49.5%

Three findings

The income-tax delta between lightest and heaviest is wider than household-comparison narratives suggest

At a $100K USD salary, United Arab Emirates workers pay an effective 0% while Netherlands workers pay 39.2% — a spread of 39.2% of pre-tax pay. Over a 30-year career on the same gross, that's roughly ~$1.2M of cumulative net-income gap, larger than most retirement-savings deltas economists model. Sub-national tax, VAT, and social-security loads narrow the headline gap but never close it.

Top-marginal rates exaggerate burden — the effective-rate distribution is much flatter

The top-marginal column on the right of the table runs from 0% to 49.5% — a 40-point spread that headlines often quote. But effective rates at the same $250K income only span 0% to 45.4%, half that. Bracket structure, personal allowances, and band thresholds soften the delta in ways the marginal number obscures.

The Gulf-state outlier reshapes the median

Excluding the UAE — a zero-income-tax outlier — the median country's effective rate at $100K is 26.6%. The UAE pulls the average down by roughly -1.4%. International compensation benchmarks that use the average risk over-stating the typical worker's take-home; the median is the sounder reference point.

Methodology

For each country we apply our income-tax calculator at three USD-equivalent gross salaries — $50K, $100K, $250K — converted to native currency at our headline FX defaults (snapshot dated to the report quarter; available on request). We read the effective rate (total tax ÷ gross) at each band and compute a weighted average:

burden_index(C) = 0.4 × eff(C, $50K)
                + 0.4 × eff(C, $100K)
                + 0.2 × eff(C, $250K)
                × 100

The 40/40/20 weighting reflects the share of OECD household income that sits in each band — over 80% of full-time workers in modelled countries earn under the equivalent of $100K, so the lower bands dominate. The $250K band is included to surface the cap-rate signal high-earners care about. Rates are income tax only — federal-level for the US (state stacks separately), England-and-Wales- equivalent for the UK (Scottish bands are heavier), and the equivalent national-government band for federal systems.

Out of scope (deliberately):social security and payroll contributions (FICA, NI, CPF, AOW); VAT and consumption tax; sub-national income tax (US state, Canadian province, Scottish bands); and tax expenditures (mortgage deduction, ISA, 401(k), CPF). Adding those would shift the ranking — France stays near the top regardless because of payroll loads, while the US slides upward once federal + state + FICA stack. We publish the income-tax-only ranking because it's the only stack with directly comparable published statutory schedules.

Reproducibility: the data source is our open computation in lib/calculators/*-income-tax; every bracket comes from the country's primary revenue authority and is cited on the per-country calculator page. You can re-run any band on the per-country page with a single click.

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Citation + press contact

Free to cite, embed, or reproduce with attribution. Suggested citation:

infoz Research (2026). Tax Burden Index — 2026 edition.
Available at: https://infoz.com/research/tax-burden-index-2026
Accessed: [your date]

Press contact: hello@infoz.com. Charts (PNG / SVG) and the underlying data (CSV) are available on request — we typically reply within 48 hours.

Editorial review

Last reviewed

May 7, 2026

Reviewed by

infoz Editorial Team — Editor, Web Publishing Corp

Single-number ranking computed live from the published statutory brackets in our country tax calculators. Refreshed when any country's brackets change; full re-publication every quarter.

Numbers, schedules, and source citations on this page are checked against primary sources during each review cycle. Spot something outdated or wrong? Report an inaccuracy — we triage every report within 7 days.