Hi, Pablo here
A note for the future: the tax bleeding in 2025
I hate taxes deeply. I fell through the rabbit hole of libertarian and anarcocapitalist ideas some years ago, and taxes have been repulsive to me ever since. I go to great lengths to not pay them, and feel deeply hurt everytime they sting my wallet against my will.
I know life goes by fast, and what today is vivid in your memory fades away bit by bit until it's gone. I'm truly hoping that, some day in the future, the world will have changed to the better and people won't be paying as much tax as we're doing today in the West. Since in that bright, utopical future I'm dreaming of I might have forgotten about how bad things were on this matter in 2025, I've decided to make a little entry here making an estimate on how many taxes I'm theoretically bleeding on a yearly basis right now. So that we can someday look back in time and wonder: "how the fuck did we tolerate that pillaging".
Inventory
Before going hard into the number crunching let's list all the tax items I'm aware of being subject to:
- Income Tax: for the sin of making money, the state takes a hefty bite of my salary.
- Social Security: the state runs a forceful Social Security programme. If you work, it is illegal to not pay for it. It is specially unnerving since it is quite literally a ponzi scheme. At least Madoff lured you into it with pretty words, not violence.
- VAT Tax: for the sin of buying stuff, the state takes another hefty bite.
- Real State Tax: for the sin of owning an apartment, the state charges me rent. Do I own it actually?
- Vehicle Tax: for the sin of owning a motorcycle, the state charges me a yearly fee.
- Wealth Transfer Tax: when you buy real state, you must pay 10% of its value in taxes. This is a one off fee if you only buy one house in your lifetime, but it is such a slap on the face that it would be dishonest to not consider it.
- Inheritance tax: you thought you were going to keep daddy's loot all for yourself? When you inherit, you'll go through the register again. Like the wealth transfer tax, is not a frequent one, but it's big so let's consider it.
There may be some other small, less frequent taxes that I'm not considering. These are the ones that will hit most people in my country.
The numbers
Okay, let's go compute the hideous bill. I'll make a hypothetical profile that's roughly close to mine, with a few assumptions along the way.
- Salary: online sources say the typical salary for my job position in my area is 70k€ yearly. Including the Social Security paid by the company, the sum rises to ~85K€. I consider this way of measuring honest, since I think that all the money paid out by the employer reflects what's the true salary and value of the employee. I read it as, "the company is willing to pay 85K€ for this. What ends up in the employees pocket, and what in the State's, they don't mind".
- Expenses: I'll assume I spend half of my salary.
- Home Purchase: I'll assume that, during my adult life, I would buy once the average home in my town. From what I could find online, that's somewhere around 500K€.
- Vehicles: I own a motorcycle and share the expenses of a car with my partner, so I'll count 1.5 vehicles.
- Inheritance tax: I found a figure stating the average windfall in my country is 250K€. We'll go with that.
With those clear, let's see the actual figures:
| Tax | €/year |
|---|---|
| Income Tax (IRPF) | 22,401 € |
| Social Security (worker + employer) | 25,375 € (worker 4,445 € + employer 20,930 €) |
| VAT (blended basket) | 5,250 € |
| Real Estate Tax (IBI) | 1,000 € |
| Vehicle Tax (1.5 vehicles) | 225 € |
| Wealth Transfer (10% home, spread 50y) | 1,000 € |
| Inheritance (7% of 250k, spread 50y) | 350 € |
| Total | 55,602 € |
So there you go. A peaceful existence as a tech professional living a normal life leads to bleeding at least 55K€ per year, all while getting an 85K€ salary. The tax rate sits at a wonderful 64%. How far away is this from hardcore USSR-grade communism?
And this is generous, since I didn't model (1) what gets stolen through inflation diluting savings and (2) any capital gains that this profile might end up paying for whatever investments he is doing with his savings.
Then you'll see mainstream media puppets discussing why young people don't have children. As if it was some kind of mistery. They're being robbed their children's bread left and right, while getting hypnotized into believing that protecting themselves against this outrageous robbery is somehow morally despicable.
Motherfuckers.