Comment by dgroshev

Apologies, brain glitch: it's half, not third. Also, I'm talking about the effective tax rate, not the marginal tax rate. Here are the numbers:

Median salary of a full time employee in the UK in 2023 (to match the German source): £34,963 [1]

Take home on that salary (after income tax and NI): £28,692 [2]

Effective tax rate on a median salary in the UK: ~18%

Median salary of a full time employee in Germany: €4,479 pm [3] or €53,748 per year

Take home: €34,281 [4]

Effective tax rate on a median salary in Germany: ~36%

Tax _rates_ are not that different, but the previous British governments really ramped up the tax-free allowance, which significantly reduces the effective tax rate.

[1]: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...

[2]: https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

[3]: https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Labour/Earnings/Earnings-E...

[4]: https://salaryaftertax.com/de/salary-calculator