As a software programmer, I receive money from people I sell the software to, pay VAT, pay social charges, pay income tax and I'm left with 37% of the money given by the clients, even though I have a very lean company (no office, no advertising costs in this calculation, no cloud costs, etc). That makes 63% of my revenue taken by the government.
What did you mean with "pure and utter nonsense", apart from not wanting to acknowledge the tax pressure in France because you've never created a company and, therefore, don't know what you are talking about?
How is creating a company "disinginuous because your tax situation is complicated"? What about we make it simple so we can focus on delivering a product for the customers (like, doing our job)?
As said, I don't even mind the 63%, even though it's impoverishing everyone. I mind the paperwork.
Living in two countries in increasingly common situation. Postdocs in Europe are required to move between countries by many grant programs (this is why me and my wife have 4 different residence permits in varied countries). Also we have a 2 years old daughter. Taxes and other bureaucracy are hell for us. And scientists are not particularly rich.
VAT is also not your contribution, it's a client's, you collect it because you can offset it.
So that 63% figure is pure and utter nonsense.