But the average wage in Japan is only $39,319

And small businesses have median wages below average.

I suspect that the small companies in Japan and Europe are below average by the same factor.

In the end it depends on the cost of living and the rents.

Average wage in Estonia is way less than that (and I would imagine most of EU's average wage is less than that), at 21,420.78 USD, but we have 20% VAT.

What are your costs of living?

27% in Hungary

Whaaaat? Are other taxes lower or non existing?! That is crazy!

10% increase, not just 10%

>The government had introduced a reduced consumption tax rate of 8% for certain products like food and newspapers, besides the standard 10%

Technically 9%... As it is 10% tax, so it is not from 1, but 0.9091

23% in Ireland.

Norway, Sweden and Denmark takes 25%. Hungary shamelessly demands 27%

Latvia is more like 33%... not even thinking about France.

VAT, not income tax.

France increased VAT from 19.6% to 20% in 2014, I think it is supposed to increase again to 22% in 2024.

Latvia seems to be up to 21%?

https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/country-guides/europe/lat...

10% increase, not 10% in total.

>The government had introduced a reduced consumption tax rate of 8% for certain products like food and newspapers, besides the standard 10%

The people voted for these taxes (or they voted for the people who voted for them).

Interestingly, however, increased govt revenue is not correlated with long-term increased economic output or GNP. (Of course, govt revenue will increase temporarily whenever taxes increase.) Most of the highest tax nations have mediocre national output.