In Portugal, the total tax burden - including social security charges – is 44.47%, meaning that June 12th is the day on which workers stop supporting the State and start keeping their earnings.
Portugal has the 15th highest tax burden of the EU’s 28 member countries, according to the The Molinari Economic Institute which has published its study that compares the tax and social security burdens on ‘average workers’ in European Union countries.
In Portugal, the working population strives until June 12 just to pay taxes. The gross salary of Portuguese workers averages €21,682 per year, but take home pay is just €13,013 after income tax, VAT and social security contributions.
Portugal is in the middle of the European table with the 16th highest gross salary, the 15th highest tax burden (€9,642) and the 16th highest net salary.
In the countries of northern Europe, the tax release day is on 31 May in Denmark, June 19 in Finland and June 23 in Sweden, close to the Portuguese case but the average net salary in each of these countries far exceeds that in Portugal.
The Danes, Finns and Swedes take home, respectively, €36,685, €28,705 and €30,539.
The worst place for tax is France where workers pay a rate of 56.73% and where the 'tax release' date is on July 27. According to the study, "France is the only country that takes more than half of a worker's average gross salary for social contributions."
The Portuguese work 163 days to pay taxes, the French work for 207 days, 6 months and 26 days, just to pay taxes.
The workers with the highest take home pay are Luxembourgers (€38,111), followed by Danes, Dutch, UK taxpayers, Swedes, Finns and Germans.
At the bottom of the take home pay tables, we find the eastern countries: Romanians (€4,809), Bulgarians (€4,176), Hungarians (€4,498) and Lithuanians (€6,585).
