Try this calculator, in the last few years taxes have increased a lot. Also keep in mind if you are a director of a company (Startup etc) you lose a good chunk of your tax credits

Anyways to answer your question, play around with calculator http://download.pwc.com/ie/budget-2015/index.html

A single 30 year old (average age of HNers?) earning €100K will receive €58,869 after all the income taxes

From this money he/she will have to then pay water tax, local property tax (if renting the landlord will pass it on), VAT of 23% on almost everything and so on, and god help you if you buy a car!

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41% is the highest tax band BUT there is also USC and PRSI tax which needs to be paid which brings up the highest rate to above 50%

basically there are a lot of hidden taxes and it is a very complex tax system which allows the government to make the figures appear palatable

If you can't live well €100K in Ireland you are doing something wrong. Do you realise that you are in the top ~12% of household income with that sort of money?

I do sometimes wonder what kind of self-awareness people have of their status.

I just pulled a round figure that someone working in tech either in US or EU would be expecting

http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/software-developer...

A lot of HN readers are from US and would be shocked at the tax rates here (on everything) and they further shocked as to how little we get to see for our tax money (no free healthcare etc)

It's very difficult to compare like for like though. For example, US property taxes are a completely different animal than Irish ones and by and large they are massively higher. Healthcare costs are not free in Ireland but they are significantly lower than in the US. And if anything really bad happens to you or your children in Ireland you are financially far more secure.

The US always appears to have a much lower tax rate but once you compare similar lifestyles things are not as different as you might imagine.

I agree there are so many variables to consider when comparing and the US itself has a wide range of living costs and salaries across the 50 states.

BUT here in Ireland the government has made it an artform in introducing indirect hidden taxes which on a quick glance one might miss and quickly add up. for example: Americans would be shocked not only at our petrol prices but the total cost of running a car (and no the public transport is not great) for example and property taxes have come in and are widely expected to rise year on year and will probably be at US levels in 10 years.

I have been to the US many of times and traveled across almost all the states so it is not just case of "grass is greener on other side"

I just had a look at the numbers, UK vs IE you're about 10% worse off in Ireland in terms of take home pay. Then as you say, you need to pay another X grand on health insurance. That's a pretty raw deal.

What a crappy system, to simultaneously make it great for corporations and bad for workers.

There have to be some other major upsides that I'm not understanding. It's a pretty country, that's something :)

> A single 30 year old (average age of HNers?) earning €100K will receive €58,869 after all the income taxes

I just put it into the calculator and the number for 2015 is: 59,019

This results in an effective tax rate of 40% approximately (this is with a property tax and water tax)

The Property tax being so low is one of the causes of the housing bubble. And some people blow their (yearly) water tax on a night at the pub.

And believe me income taxes are not that much better in other places (or there are other issues)

Yeah, healthcare could be better, but it's not a big issue (as opposed to something like the USA)

And? I would still consider it pretty reasonable tax for Europe. My relatives are paying 60% taxes from ~€15,000 salary.

I'm surprised. Where do they live?

Czech republic

Social insurance, health insurance and income tax will be around 25% on €15k annual salary in Czech republic. And that's assuming they have no children. With children it's even less.

source: http://www.penize.cz/kalkulacky/vypocet-ciste-mzdy

Supergross salary rings a bell?

15000*27/12 = 33750CZK/month = 42.5% taxation

Add VAT 21%, petrol tax 52%...

Except the VAT and petrol tax have nothing to do with income tax. So you can't just add it to the ~40% income tax. 21% VAT is quite normal in the EU, so that's nothing special.

Also source on that petrol tax? According to http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/23/uk-czech-tax-idUKKB... it seems to be one of the lower in the EU, as the cut would have "put Czech petrol taxes below minimum rates allowed in the European Union"

See here:

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it1.html#section3

Under: "Tax Rates and Tax Bands"

VAT:

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/guide/vat-rates.html#sectio...

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/rates/current-historic-rate...

they look like the figures for the UK, Rep of Ireland is not the UK.