We’re not No. 1 – at least when it comes to how much we pay in taxes compared to workers in other developed countries.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s annual report on individual income taxes finds that the U.S. ranks 25th out of the organization’s 34 member countries when it comes individual tax burdens.
The report looks at the total income and social security taxes paid by employees and employers, minus any tax credits they receive.
It found that the average single U.S. worker without children faced a so-called “tax wedge” of 31.3 percent in 2013, compared to an OECD average of 35.9 percent.
The U.S. tax wedge was a slight increase over 2012, which the researchers said was likely because of the expiration of a temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes.
Typical workers and their employers have a similar tax burden to their peers in the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.
Workers – and their employers - in Belgium, Germany, Austria and Hungary faced the highest tax burden, the report found, while those in Israel, Mexico, New Zealand and Chile had the lowest tax wedge.
The overall comparison was of single, childless workers earning an average wage. The OECD also compared the tax burden of single and two-earner couples with children and at various income levels. By all those measures, the average American taxpayer also faced a lower tax burden than the OECD average, the report found.