Saturday, February 23, 2019

The Flat Tax In Retreat

The flat tax movement peaked at 40 countries.  Beginning in 2009, the following countries added a second (or more) higher rate(s) on upper-income households, with two adding a second lower rate.

Tuvalu, 2009:   added second lower rate of 15% to previous 30% flat rate

Iceland, 2010:  replaced 36% flat rate with progressive rate schedule up to 46.28%

Ukraine, 2011:  added second higher rate of 17% to previous 13% flat rate

Czech Republic, 2013:  added second higher rate of 22% to previous 15% flat rate

Slovakia, 2013:  added second higher rate of 25% to previous 19% flat rate

Montenegro, 2013:  added second higher rate of 15% to previous 9% rate

Albania, 2014:  replaced 10% flat rate with two rates of 13% and 23%

Grenada, 2014:  added second lower rate of 15% to previous 30% flat rate

St. Helena, 2015:  replaced 25% flat rate with two rates of 26% and 31%

Jamaica, 2016:  added second higher rate of 30% to previous 25% flat rate

Guyana, 2017:  replaced 30% flat rate with two rates of 28% and 40%

Mauritius, 2017:  replaced flat rate of 15% with two rates of 10% and 20%

Trinidad and Tobago, 2017:  added second higher rate of 30% to previous 25% flat rate

Latvia, 2018:  Replaced its 23% flat rate with three rates of 20%, 23%, and 31.4%

North Macedonia, 2019:  added second higher rate of 18% to previous 10% flat rate

The second higher rates in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are temporary 7-year measures.  They may be extended, made permanent, or allowed to lapse.

All of these measures were enacted after the financial crisis of 2008-09, some to raise additional revenue, others promoted by newly-elected leftist political parties.

Updates will be posted if and when other countries add a second or more rates to their flat tax, or if new countries adopt a flat tax.

1 comment:

Richard Rider said...

Perhaps the biggest problem countries have worldwide are the Ponzi schemes that roughly parallel our Social Security system in the U.S. All governments promise bigger pensions than they fund. All such pyramid deals eventually require greater and greater funding to defer the ultimate reckoning.

It's not just that the flat rate tax idea has lost support. All these tax "reforms" are designed to collect MORE revenue with less squawking by the voters. It's amazing how worldwide these income redistribution and guaranteed retirement con jobs are. It really doesn't matter whether it's a democracy or a dictatorship -- almost all politicians love to give away today what doesn't have to be paid for until tomorrow.