Income tax is one of the most brutal tools of the state. It was invented in England during the Napoleonic Wars as a "temporary" war levy. Abolished after the war, it was quickly revived whenever rulers sought to increase revenue. By World War II, the mask was off: Britain’s top rate hit 99%, and the United States increased the rate to 94%.
Politicians always promise relief, but like sharks that have tasted blood, they never stop circling. Marginal rates eased somewhat toward the end of the disastrous socialist 20th century, yet every crisis becomes their excuse to seize more of your hard-earned money.
Geopolitical power struggles are intensifying once again, dragging countries into fearsome conflict. History shows us that in a possible World War III, income taxes will rise to confiscate your entire wealth.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the 10 countries with the highest marginal income tax rates and urge you to defend yourself against this disgraceful madness. I calculated the highest statutory top marginal rate on earned income by adding the national or federal top bracket to any state, provincial, or city income taxes and surtaxes, using the most reliable tax sources—such as the Tax Foundation and PwC—to ensure the data’s accuracy.
Once the land of freedom and enterprise, the U.S. now traps success in a maze of taxes and bureaucracy—where hard work is punished, not rewarded, and prosperity fades under a 50%+ burden
Once the castle of capitalism, the United States was the freest and most prosperous nation on earth, built by pioneers, entrepreneurs, and immigrants who thrived under limited government and open markets. Its dynamism created unparalleled wealth and innovation, proving to the world what freedom and capitalism could achieve.
But today, that legacy is fading. The country has drifted into a strange welfare state that no longer makes it clear who it is serving. Progressive taxation, endless regulation, and redistribution schemes weigh heavily on the very people who built America’s wealth. In 2025, the combined top marginal tax rate will reach approximately 51.8% in New York City (37% federal, 10.9% state, and 3.876% city), while California follows closely at 50.3%. Once a champion of freedom, it now punishes productivity and traps its citizens in political illusions.
What makes the U.S. tax system terrible is not the headline rates alone, but the sheer complexity of it. Unlike most countries, Americans don’t just deal with a single national tax authority. Taxpayers face a tiered structure of federal, state, and often city or county taxes, each with its own rules, tax brackets and loopholes.
America’s tax code resembles a thousand-page maze, capable of pushing rates above 50% in some states. The real burden isn’t just the money but the time, confusion, and compliance costs that punish success twice. Rates may vary, but the tax system itself forces taxpayers to spend resources on survival rather than innovation.
In the 19th century, Sweden was one of Europe’s poorest countries, sending waves of emigrants to America in search of a better life. However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sweden rapidly transformed its destiny by adopting laissez-faire economics, becoming a prosperous country. Today, Sweden is sold as a successful example of socialism by the leftists in the U.S. What a shameless lie this is. The progressive era broke Sweden’s once-prosperous society, and only the market reforms of the 1980s restored the country’s image of prosperity.
Today, Sweden continues to burden its citizens with some of the highest income taxes in the world. The combined state and municipal top marginal rate stands at around 52.3%. Sweden is often hailed as proof that high taxes and prosperity can coexist. That is an illusion. Heritage Foundation's Economic Freedom Index ranks Sweden as the 12th freest economy in the world. Its wealth creation capacity depends on free markets. However, once you create wealth, the gains of most of your hard work are confiscated by the government through high taxes.
Income taxes are already steep, yet the real sting comes from the double hit of a national income tax stacked on top of hefty local and municipal levies. What is even more unconscionable is that Sweden imposes a 25% VAT on top of already high income taxes. The real damage isn’t just the high rates but how all-encompassing they are—taxes follow citizens when they work, when they consume, and even when they save. The government has left little space for wealth to grow outside the state’s reach. For those who value independence, what is termed “stability” often appears as economic captivity. This is disgusting collectivism, skillfully hidden from the naked eye.
Once a struggling nation, Portugal now burdens its people with taxes above 50%, draining growth and punishing success, where over half of every extra euro earned ends up in the hands of the state
In the 19th century, Portugal was one of Western Europe’s poorest nations, crippled by the loss of Brazil, political turmoil, and protectionist policies. Only much later did Portugal slowly embrace free markets, democracy, and trade in the 1970s and 1980s. However, with its democratic transition, Portugal solidified its progressive income tax and pushed it above 70%.
Today, Portugal still punishes success with some of the highest income taxes in Europe. The top national bracket is 48%, but with an added “solidarity tax,” the true top rate climbs to about 53%. Ordinary Portuguese are weighed down by redistribution schemes and political illusions that drain growth and deny them the rewards of their own hard work. Marginal taxes are already above 50% before social security is even counted, so more than half of every extra euro earned goes straight to the state.
In the 19th century, Belgium became one of Europe’s earliest industrial powers. With its liberal constitution, free trade, coal, steel, and the port of Antwerp, the country thrived as a free-market economy. After World War I, Belgium adopted a progressive income tax. Sold as a temporary wartime measure, it never went away. By the 1970s, top rates pushed toward 80%, crushing the very prosperity that free markets had created.
Today, Belgium continues to exploit its citizens through confiscatory taxation. The top marginal income tax rate is around 53.5%, one of the highest in the world, and ordinary Belgians are weighed down by endless redistribution and political illusions. Belgium also has some of the highest social security contributions in the OECD, in addition to steep income taxes. A middle-class worker can cost a company €60,000 a year (around $70,282 USD), yet barely half of that ends up in the employee’s pocket. For businesses, hiring becomes so expensive that many turn to automation, outsourcing, or simply stop growing altogether.
On top of this, Belgium’s three regions, each with its own language, community, and local layers, create a patchwork of overlapping rules that drain both time and money. Filing taxes is costly and confusing, even for professionals, and the return is often unsatisfactory. Infrastructure is in need of investment, public debt is skyrocketing, and reform promises are not being kept. The real damage isn’t just the high rates, but a system that punishes job creation while delivering little certainty in return.
Spain once rose through market freedom, but today it crushes ambition with taxes above 50%, endless bureaucracy, and unstable rules that drive talent and capital away from its shores
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Spain was weighed down by civil wars and protectionist policies. However, after the Franco era, market reforms and free trade paved the way for the country's rapid growth. Unfortunately, as prosperity took root, politicians piled on progressive income taxes and rigid labour laws, eroding the wealth Spaniards had built and driving many of the most talented abroad.
Today, Spain continues to impose some of the harshest taxes in the world. The top marginal income tax rate is about 54% in the Valencian Community, with other regions close behind. Ordinary Spaniards are burdened with endless redistribution schemes and political illusions that suffocate growth and deny them the rewards of their own hard work.
Besides its heavy taxes, Spain has one of the highest social security contributions in Europe. Entrepreneurs or small businesses find themselves crushed. Hiring workers or trying to scale a company becomes far more expensive than it should be. It is not because wages are high, but that the state takes such a large cut.
The deeper problem is that Spain doesn’t offer much stability in return. Governments frequently change tax rules, imposing new taxes, such as temporary "crisis taxes" on banks or energy companies. As you might expect, these often become permanent. Compliance is costly, and bureaucracy is slow. Instead of encouraging risk-taking and long-term planning, the government’s shifting demands push capital and talent to safer jurisdictions.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canada grew rapidly wealthy as a frontier free-market economy, attracting immigrants, expanding railways, and exporting wheat, timber, and minerals. However, the same story unfolded regarding progressive income tax and the ruin of a population that once built a prosperous nation through freedom, discipline, and hard work in the harsh conditions of North America.
As a Canadian, it pains me to see the miserable state of my fellow citizens today. Canada is a lost country, trapped in the false dreams of politicians. The highest combined income tax rate in Canada is 54.8% in Newfoundland and Labrador. Don’t expect the other provinces to be any better—they’re just different shades of gray. The best move is to leave the country while you still can.
Canada sells itself as a safe, prosperous, open society, but the reality on the ground feels very different today. Healthcare is collapsing under its own weight. Because wait times for basic procedures can stretch for months or even years, families cross into the U.S. just to see a doctor within a reasonable timeframe. Furthermore, housing has become unaffordable in nearly every major city. Prices are sky-high, and the limited housing supply is locking younger generations out of ownership. Add in rising crime and a visible decline in public order, and everyday life no longer matches Canada’s polished international image.
What makes Canada’s situation worse is the direction of its politics. Instead of addressing structural issues, the government has resorted to control. During COVID, Ottawa froze the bank accounts of protesting citizens—an extraordinary display of financial power against its own people. New laws like Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 hand regulators sweeping authority over online content and media, raising alarms about censorship. Combined with an overreliance on immigration to mask demographic decline, Canada appears less like the land of opportunity and more like a state drifting toward tighter control and declining freedom.
In Austria, with its long history of wars, hyperinflation, and economic crises, governments have repeatedly resorted to raising income taxes in times of trouble. That was a destructive habit rather than a solution, and it continued until the end of the 1980s. Although Austria has adopted more market-oriented regulations and opened its borders to free trade, its old habit of high taxes has never vanished.
The top marginal income tax rate of 55% makes Austria one of the most tax-burdened nations in the world. It is a pity to see a highly educated and industrious people shackled by crushing taxes.
Austria often looks like a model European state—clean cities, alpine stability, and a reputation for efficiency. However, beneath that image are structural cracks that make life far less attractive for those trying to build something new. The bureaucracy is notoriously heavy-handed, with permits, licenses, and endless paperwork slowing down everything from opening a business to renovating a property. Labour laws are rigid, making hiring and firing costly and discouraging entrepreneurial risk. For a country that sells itself as orderly, the system often feels suffocating.
The other challenge is cultural and demographic. Because of a rapidly aging population, Austria is heavily dependent on immigration. However, as a consequence, serious social friction has erupted in recent years. Public debate often tilts toward more regulation, more oversight, and more redistribution, leaving little space for genuine reform. Energy policy is another hot problem. After shutting down nuclear plants, energy prices have increased sharply, and the green transition is not coming cheaply. The result is a country that appears stable from a distance but feels stagnant up close.
France was one of the great economic powers of 18th-century Europe thanks to its vast, fertile land, comprehensive trade, manufacturing and colonial network. Although France is known for its revolutionary past and propensity for radical ideas, it found a way to restructure itself to adapt to the capitalist era.
However, after World War II, France rapidly established one of the most comprehensive and expensive welfare states in the world, with subsidies, pensions, benefits, and special entitlements that now cost half of France's GDP. As France increased public spending and became a major proponent of progressive ideology, it stagnated its economy, retreated from innovation, and began grappling with widespread unemployment. Today, France has become a country unsure of how to address its economic and political challenges. Political instability has become so severe that France now changes prime ministers every few months.
The marginal income tax bracket in France stands at 55.4%, second in Europe, and third in the world, just right after Denmark and Japan. Aging population, increasing young unemployment, stagnated economic growth, chronic immigration problem, and social classes getting more radical and more everyday are the short story of the devastating French drama today.
Once a miracle of growth and innovation, Japan now drowns in taxes, debt, and an aging population, a fading giant burdened by a 56% tax rate and the weight of its own welfare state
After World War II, Japan achieved extraordinary growth from the 1950s to the late 1980s. The "Japanese Miracle" was created by industrial production, technological investments, and exports that led Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. It ended in the early 1990s and appears unlikely to return. Now, Japan continues to struggle to maintain the world's most expensive welfare state, with low growth and an aging population.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Japan, swept up in the Progressive-era frenzy, pushed income taxes above 70%. Today, the combined marginal tax rate on income stands at 55.9%. We are witnessing, in slow motion, the death of a once-great nation that had achieved miracles.
Japan's demographics are also a ticking time bomb. With one of the world's lowest fertility rates, Japan is struggling to cope with a rapidly aging population and a shrinking workforce, along with economic problems. Japan needs serious reforms to deregulate the economy, liberalize its immigration policy, and lower the tax burden. However, politicians stick to the same old formula of higher taxes and more public spending. The result is a mountain of public debt that now exceeds 235% of GDP. This is the highest public debt rate in the so-called developed world.
What is even more tragic is that young Japanese workers are left to carry the impossible burden of supporting an aging population and a failing welfare system. A nation that once astonished the world with its dynamism and discipline has now become a warning. No matter how rich or innovative a nation may have been in the past, if it surrenders to taxation and redistribution, its downfall is inevitable.
Denmark, once a bankrupt country in the 19th century, turned its course in history through market-oriented reforms and free trade. Poor people in an underdeveloped country have become an industrially rich society in just a few decades. However, Denmark was quick to adopt progressive high-income taxes to slow down its wealth creation. It did so to such an extent that in the 1990s, the Danish government, intoxicated by dreams of socialism, did not hesitate to raise the marginal income tax rate above 90%.
Although the socialist nightmare in Denmark was somewhat alleviated by the devastating economic failures of central planning, the country still imposes one of the highest income tax rates at 55.9%, similar to Japan.
Defenders of the Danish model like to brag about “free” healthcare and education. However, we must know that there is no free lunch. Workers lose more than half their income before it even reaches their pockets. The heavy tax burden has eroded private savings and left most households dependent on the state from cradle to grave. Denmark’s high taxes have also started a quiet exodus of entrepreneurs and high-income earners, who prefer to move their talent and capital to friendlier jurisdictions such as Switzerland.
What makes the situation worse is that Denmark has locked itself into this system politically. Any attempt to lower taxes is branded as an attack on equality, leaving little room for reform. The irony is stark: the very prosperity created by free markets and trade is now being restrained by redistribution and bureaucracy.
Born from war and kept alive by control, progressive taxes now serve as tools of quiet socialism. In every crisis, governments reach for your wealth, unless you’ve built a way out before it’s too late
While many people offer justifications for progressive income taxes, in reality, they were born to finance mass wars, and governments have clung to them ever since. All the countries in this article are supposedly developed democracies, and the same would hold true if the list were expanded. What’s clear is that in any global crisis, the first move of these governments will be to raid the assets of the wealthy.
If you don’t want to leave yourself at the mercy of the state, act now to build a geographically diversified exit strategy before it’s too late. Start building your Plan-B by downloading our free special report on Plan-B Residencies & Instant Citizenships.