Oh my god, a $100k salary would be taxes at 42%, plus a 25% VAT on general spending, that's just insane...

In the UK you pay 60% on anything between 100K and 125K, then it goes back to 40%. Above 150K it goes to 45%. This is only the income tax. National insurance would be 2% at those income levels.

Not to be a dick but what's your source on that? I understood it to be 40% up to 150k, not 60% as per https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employe...

In the UK you don’t pay taxes on the first 12500£ you earn in a tax year. This is the income tax allowance.

For each 2£ you earn above 100K, your income tax allowance is reduced by 1£. At 125K, your allowance reaches 0. The result is that between 100K and 125K your marginal tax rate is 60%. At 125K it goes back to 40%.

Wow - thank you for this, TIL.

In Belgium, you can get to 50% tax on that 100K + 21% VAT on normal goods (6% on food).

The only "good" part is that even managers in the Nordics have the same work-life expectations as the workers. Of course there are some managers who take work home more than others but unless you are in the C-level you can tell anyone who tries to make you work more than the usual 37,5-40h a week to kindly fuck off.