According to OECD's "Taxing Wages 2017" report, an average earner in the UK pays less tax than a single average earner in the US. For a married single-earner couple, taxes will be lower in the US, and other specific situations can play in as well (e.g. while PPP adjusted income for average earners in the US and UK was almost identical, the nominal amounts diverge a bit more, so if you compare specific nominal income levels it may shift things a bit), but in general it's way too simplistic to assume the UK will be high tax and the US low tax.
I know that wasn't your point - it's just a pet peeve of mine that people seem to think US tax levels are so low; they can be, if your family situation is right, your deductions are just right, and you happen to live in one of the lower tax jurisdictions, but it can just as well go the other way. Similarly that a lot of people seem to think the UK is so high - it's below the OECD average.
If you want an unambiguous "high tax" example, go with Belgium - they top the OECD tax data on almost every measure by a large margin (40.7% tax + employer social security for an average earner vs. 26% for US and 23.3% for the UK according to Taxing Wages 2017) or Germany (39.7%).
Thanks. This is very interesting. Will take a look at the report. My intuition is that the US/UK difference flips around once you're well over median income, but haven't looked at the numbers.
According to OECD's "Taxing Wages 2017" report, an average earner in the UK pays less tax than a single average earner in the US. For a married single-earner couple, taxes will be lower in the US, and other specific situations can play in as well (e.g. while PPP adjusted income for average earners in the US and UK was almost identical, the nominal amounts diverge a bit more, so if you compare specific nominal income levels it may shift things a bit), but in general it's way too simplistic to assume the UK will be high tax and the US low tax.
I know that wasn't your point - it's just a pet peeve of mine that people seem to think US tax levels are so low; they can be, if your family situation is right, your deductions are just right, and you happen to live in one of the lower tax jurisdictions, but it can just as well go the other way. Similarly that a lot of people seem to think the UK is so high - it's below the OECD average.
If you want an unambiguous "high tax" example, go with Belgium - they top the OECD tax data on almost every measure by a large margin (40.7% tax + employer social security for an average earner vs. 26% for US and 23.3% for the UK according to Taxing Wages 2017) or Germany (39.7%).