June 6th is Portugal’s Tax Liberation Day this year, according to a European study which shows this is the day when earned income after this date is the real net income for the year.
In 2011 the Portuguese had to work to May 29th to meet their tax obligations, in 2012 the date was June 3rd.
There are better places to be if tax is the driving force, Portugal is only in 7th place of the 28 EU economies after Cyprus (21st March), Malta and Ireland (April 28th), the UK, Bulgaria and Luxembourg (May 12th) .
The countries where workers have to toil longer to pay the state's taxes are Belgium (August 6th), France (July 28th), Austria (July 25th), Hungary (16th July), Greece (July 14), Germany (July 11th) and Romania (July 1).
Today’s report concludes that "taxes continue to rise in Europe" where an average EU worker saw his real tax rate increase again this year, rising from 45.06% in 2013 to 45.27% in 2014 in a trend that has been going on since 2010 when this study began.
"The increase in the tax burden of 1.28% since 2010 is largely a consequence of the VAT increases in 19 European Union member countries," reads the report.
In true form Portugal has decided to raise VAT again from next year from 23% to a fiddlesome 23.25%.
In the same Fiscal Strategy document where the VAT rise was announced, the government indicated that the weight of income tax and corporate tax on the nation’s GDP will remain unchanged or will rise slightly until 2018, meaning that the public will continue to be expected to pay for the mistakes of government and bankers for years to come.
