That's only really true for income taxes; we're in the top 10 for VAT, way above average for gas taxes, high energy taxes, etc. If you look at the net personal average tax rate, we're close to Norway, Luxembourg and France, except when you live with less than €10k/year, every marginal euro taken for taxes hurts quite a bit more.

When one starts to lump unrelated taxes atop of income tax, it's a sure sign it's not that dramatic.

VAT in Norway is 25%, petrol yesterday was €1.6/L (and we're a major oil producing nation). A car here is probably 1.8x of same model sold in Portugal, purely due to the taxes. About 35% of my (unremarkable) paycheck effectively goes towards income tax, after all tax breaks are factored in. If you are in top tax bracket, you'd be easily paying 45% effective income tax, with nominal over 50%.

Do we get fair return for the money? Most people here seem to think so. Can smaller tax on over smaller base income be felt disproportionately? You have a point there. However Portugal is a first world nation, and this level of civics, infrastructure, education and healthcare does require substantial money for upkeep. There is no good way around this, but hopefully you get a better deal on that due to economies of scale than if you had to provide all that for yourself on your own.

You seem to be confusing me with someone who wants low taxes. I do not. I just disagree that we already have low taxes, as you implied with your comparison.

Norway is an outlier even among rich countries. Having lower taxes than Norway does not mean taxes are low.