OECD data for 2015 show that in a year when there were no income tax rate rises in Portugal, the reality was that taxpayers were squeezed for more.
The figures are from between 2014 and 2015 and show that of the 34 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Portuguese stealth taxes took the greatest toll due to rises in social security contributions and the chiselling away at allowances.
Income tax and social security taxes in 2015 were 42.1% of labour costs in the case of a single worker.
Although income tax has not changed in the past year, the government managed to take more from each worker in 2015 as over the year before, the total tax burden was lower at 41.2%.
This means that the difference between gross pay and net pay worsened over the year, a state of affairs noticed by workers but welcomed by the Passos Coelho coalition government that was able to raise taxes without being seen so to do.
The higher tax take was from those with families as well as from singletons - in fact those with families suffered a 0.86% rise in tax, the highest in the OECD group and a damning indictment of a coalition government that had attempted to come over as ‘family friendly’ while Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque amassed a €7 billion 'comfort blanket.'
