$100k is £71k, you’d pay £21k in taxes on that which is 30%

Well our UK tax bands are marginal tax rates.

So you pay zero on the first £12,570 of earnings. Basic rate of 20% from £12,571 to £50,270 of earnings. And then 40% on £50,271 onwards.

(We have additional rate over £150,000 of 45%).

It's important to remember you don't pay a flat %age on your income. It's worked out as a precentage of income you earn inside the thresholds

That’s all irrelevant. I was quoting actual tax paid, not marginal rates.

You also forget a major part of tax levied on workers but not on owners - national insurance.

Don’t forget that you start to lose the personal allowance over £100k so there’s a point at which the marginal tax rate is around 60%.

Yup. That level is at 50k if you have two kids. Even higher with three kids.

> In NYC, earning about $100k a year, the effective rate is ~28% tax

That doesn't include VAT (or whatever it's called in America), tariffs, excise duties though, does it? It'd be curious to see a comparison between countries that would cover all those things (like how much you earn, and how much you actually pay for some average set of goods).