Well first off, it’s not an accurate number. When I paid someone recently the payroll tax was roughly 7%. It’s lower in different states or with different wages, but the graph needs to include that information. What the Tax Foundation did here is find the lowest amount that you can possibly pay on payroll tax, in any place or on any wage, and include that number as a flat rate for the US. That’s incredibly dishonest.

And it’s not the “grand total” either. If one person pays a 30% tax on one thing, and another person has to pay a 30% tax on another thing, that’s not a 60% tax. That’s two transactions with a 30% tax.

And the division of “employees’ social contributions” is very misleading as these rates are included in the income tax of most countries, and can be voluntary depending on where you are or who you work for. It’s also covered entirely by employers in many EU countries.

It’s a graph that lacks any nuance or explanation, and is purposefully set up to make the US tax contribution look like less than it is.

The Tax Foundation itself is very business-friendly, like most tax policy think tanks in the US, and they seriously show their ass here. A quick look at this graph would make someone think that Swedes give up 78% of their income. That’s just not true.

The one piece of data you can seriously glean there is that the US’s income tax is comparable to countries with welfare states. Because this is the type of tax most people actually pay, it’s the most relevant to the question of what regular citizens get in return for their taxes.