• Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      Oh no, do you feel unwell? Do you need to take paid personal leave from work to visit a free doctor?

      • gergo@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        *it’s not free.

        i pay (on top of my tax deductions) about monthly 150eur for health insurance, and on top of that a yearly 384 eur “eigen risico” (own risk). still better than the US, but free it is not.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      This is social security,

      A big reason US taxes seem lower is because there are so many different taxes and we usually don’t aggregate

      Google says you’re specifying the Dutch income tax rate, so it’s not comparable and the Dutch social security tax’s is “only” 27.5%

      • gergo@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        your “only” is doing some heavy lifting there :) but of course i wouldn’t have it any other way.

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Looks at the services your government provides you and compare it to America. That should help you feel a little better about the taxes you pay. We end up paying more to private corporations for the same or worse than your taxes pay for.

    • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      As other mentioned its social security and Medicare tax. Social security tax ends after a point and Medicare tax continues (1.45% I think), hence the 2.2% effective tax rate.

      What’s missing is also the employer taxes, which are mirrored, this the cost of carrying employees in the US is higher than the gross wage… So the effective tax and real wage is all masked. (Eg if my salary is $100,000 I pay like $12k in social taxes and my employer also does the same, meaning the cost to the employer to hire me is $112,000)

      All this said, the limit on social security tax is fucking stupid and needs to be abolished.

    • RBWells@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Don’t worry - I only take home half my pay as netpay, too, after deductions for tax and retirement and healthcare and have a $4k deductible before my health insurance kicks in.

      So it’s not paid in taxes, but works out the same.