Scandinavian Countries Have Higher Tax Burden, Says Eurostat

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

29 May 2002

The 7th Edition of the Eurostat Yearbook, published on Monday by the Statistical Office of the European Communities in Luxembourg has revealed that the tax burden is higher in Scandinavian countries than in other European nations.

The new yearbook, which brings together statistics on the social, environmental, economic, and trading activities of the European Union and its major partners for the 1999-2000 period, revealed that taxpayers in Nordic countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, pay more taxes on income and wealth than any other European citizens.

Expressed as a percentage of GDP, public revenue accounted on average for 46.2% in the 15 nation European bloc. However, the figures for individual countries ranged widely from 36.5% in Ireland to 56.3% and 62.5% in Denmark and Sweden respectively.

Taxes on income and wealth also account for a greater proportion of GDP in Scandinavian countries according to Eurostat, which revealed on Monday that income taxes ranged from around 10% of Gross Domestic Product in countries such as Greece and Spain, to 28.9% in Denmark.

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