

Ask HN: First world country with simple tax system? - hermanthegerman

Is your country's tax system easy to understand ? In particular, for people who work on their own or as entrepreneurs.
Just out of curiosity. I'm german, and we produce more than half the tax related literature in the world.
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curt
For true first world Hong Kong and Singapore are an entrepreneurs dream. They
are both usually rated as the 1st and 2nd most free places on the planet.
Every country in the world should copy their system of taxes, regulations, and
bureaucratic environment. Their idea is to just minimize the burden and get
out of the way. Just look at the results, they went from complete poverty to
two of the richest places on the planet in a matter of decades.

Russia, while not really first world or really safe it has a ridiculous simple
tax system designed by Milton Freeman and the guys at UofC. Most of the former
Soviet Bloc countries have adopted similar systems. One single flat rate,
minimal deductions, how every system should be.

As a side note, when I do business in Asia I usually always go through Hong
Kong or Singapore, makes life a whole lot easier. Don't worry as much about
getting screwed.

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a3camero
You might want to be more specific about what you mean by "most free" because
Singapore isn't very free as in freedom:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Singapore>

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olegious
"Freedom" is overrated in this case- I'd feel safer walking down the street in
Singapore at 4am than the streets of San Francisco, hell there are streets in
San Francisco where I wouldn't feel safe at noon.

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a3camero
That is a surprising aspect of San Francisco. Went there for the first time in
October and wandered into basically a ghetto downtown. I'm not sure if US
cities are the best comparison. That said, there are a lot of other good
cities with strong business communities in the world that are quite safe. It
seems a bit disingenuous to suggest the trade-off is between authoritarian
government and safety.

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matthavener
I've read Estonia has a pretty simple tax system.

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hermanthegerman
Interesting - bit close to Russia, though ;-)

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david927
Slovakia has a 19% flat tax.

