I was replying joking to a poster from England (which I believe has free health care), didn't mean to get you upset - chill.

 

yes we do have free healthcare....

we also had a mass protest 3 years back when fuel hit $5 a gallon,truck drivers staged roadblocks outside refineries which meant fuel supplies were not getting
to the gas stations.there was a critical shortage.I remember queueing for 2 hours at 2am to get fuel !! Following that though the government froze tax on fuel for about a year,and fuel prices started to fall................I sense another protest is imminent !!

 

John isn't the wage tax and death tax ridiculously high also?

 

thats right...income tax is 40% for high earners.Dunno about death tax...yet.
cigarettes are also ridiculous at £5 ($7.50) a pack.

 

Not upset at all, just curious. My wife is German and some of my friends back home were under the impression her health care was free - and it isn't.

Back to fuel, the price here in Germany is approximately $4.19 per gallon (for Super Plus 93 Octane US). There was a significant price increase about a month ago and the price fluctuates throughout the week - seems like each Wednesday night the price goes up to catch the weekend traffic. The tax per liter on fuel here is about 70% of the price(for the oil, clean air and other things). Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland are about the same pump price with Austria and Luxembourg being the lowest I've seen. The high earner tax in Germany is about 42% and they are looking at even more. But I believe England is, by far, the most taxed - all things considered - country on this continent. Those folks really get hit hard. JW3

 

Yeah the FREE healthcare sounds Great:-(

 

"Sure but we don't have free health care..."

If they're paying 6 dollars a gallon it's hardly free, is it?

EDIT TO ADD: Whoops, look like this has already been covered, lol.

PS: Marinas are always ridiculous wrt gas prices.

 

we sure do get taxed up the a$$ over here...and to add insult to injury the weather is crap and now were a terrorist target too...I dont know why I dont just move back to Greece sometimes.

 

Taxes ain't so cheap here in the good old USA:
Fed Tax Rate: 35%
CA State Tax Rate: 9.3%
Social Security Tax Rate: 12%
Medicare Tax Rate: 2%
State Sales Tax Rate: 8.25%
Then there's gasoline tax, property tax, capital gains tax, death tax (unless you plan to die in 2010), automobile tax, and of course there's always alternative minimum tax just in case the Fed's don't think you are paying enough. I just don't see any tax panacea here.

 

Sorry Phil but you have to remember that in Europe, for the most part they actually pay the rates, no item deductions.

I pay MUCH less tax here than I did in UK.

 

How did you get 31 gallons in your tank? Are they California gallons???

 

Mudman, you are a lucky guy. I am not able to deduct property taxes or CA State Income taxes. My only deductions are mortgage interest and charitable deductions due to the AMT. Then, there are the phase outs for those and exemptions. Quite simply, I get real screwed with no free health care. Oh, and then there's the matter of the hundreds of thousands of State and Federal tax I paid on a non existent gain exercising stock options that turned out to be worthless. What a deal. You mean things are worse in the UK? Good grief. Did you know that the top 1% of income earners pay 29% of all federal taxes? The top 5% pays 50% of the taxes. These figures come courtesy of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

 

No they are not like UK gallons (3.8 L per US gal) I have a 55 gal tank... (it's a boat)

 

And in 1961 19% of taxes were paid by individuals the rest by corporations now the reverse is true.

You had bad luck I agree but I am still better off in taxes than in my other life.

 

We honeymooned in Big Sur,...rented a Z4 and drove up and down Rte 1 for a week. Gas in Big Sur was pricey!!!