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Samizdata quote of the day

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Living in Europe is nice… but one thing is tax!!!!

– An unidentified Chinese woman, overheard mid conversation while apparently flirting with a German man in an expat bar in Shanghai.

March 31st, 2006 |

10 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • James Waterton
    March 31, 2006 at 5:40 pm

    Actually, I suppose that pretty much goes to the root of the continent’s myriad problems, perhaps in tandem with an unusually overdeveloped will to statism.

  • ian
    March 31, 2006 at 5:43 pm

    Whereas in China you don’t pay tax?

    China Individual Income Tax

    From this it appears that you start paying tax at 20% on RMB5,000 (approx £360), rising to 45% on RMB100,000 (aprox £7200)

    Given that the Chinese Government is one of the most autocratic on Earth it seems like you pay a lot to be oppressed. I guess however that despite China’s much vaunted economic growth, the vast majority of Chinese would dearly love to be earning enough to pay tax at 20%

    Also according to this:

    Currently, the official rate of corporate tax in China is 33%. However, in an attempt to attract higher levels of foreign investment as the authorities sought to develop a market-based economy, various deductions and waivers have allowed foreign-funded firms to pay tax at an effective rate of 14%, whilst domestic firms effectively pay corporate tax at about 24%.

  • Verity
    March 31, 2006 at 11:52 pm

    Come, come! The lady is not speaking from personal experience. She has had affairs with expats or has been on the expat party/bar circuit and has heard taxes mentioned as a major form of irritation, so she parrots it as a way of relating and getting the expat to think she knows more than she does.

    We have all negotiated this ploy – tried to appear more knowing than we really are about something, to gain a pretended community with the person we were talking to. For whatever reason. An American businessman might say to a customer in London, “That congestion charge must really bite your family, especially if you’ve got kids in the zone.” Pretending to relate.

    The lady was just trying to get a gig in Germany. I hope she made it.

  • James Waterton
    April 1, 2006 at 4:21 am

    Speaking to various taxpayers in China, it seems the application of the tax code is rather haphazard.

    I also know an English guy earning 15,000 RMB a month who pays barely any tax.

  • uain
    April 1, 2006 at 5:24 am

    I spent a semester teaching in Sweden and learned that they had 25% tax on equaivalent of the first $25,000 and 50% tax above that. I met a taxi driver in Stockholm who said he made more than a surgeon.
    So I concluded that I would ride in a Swedish taxi anytime, but would hope to make it back to the USA if I needed surgery.

  • Michael Farris
    April 1, 2006 at 8:14 am

    For once, I think Verity is completely right.

    (maybe we should check the alignment of the stars ….)

  • Verity
    April 1, 2006 at 5:57 pm

    Well, Michael Farris, I believe there was a total eclipse of the moon …

  • ian
    April 5, 2006 at 2:03 pm

    We have all negotiated this ploy – tried to appear more knowing than we really are about something, to gain a pretended community with the person we were talking to. For whatever reason.

    Explains a lot…

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