Originally Posted by
calypso
Income tax is ofcourse only a (smallish) part of the picture. If you take into account the overall tax burden, including council tax, road tax, tv licence, fuel tax, vat, etc, etc I will doubt very much that you pay more tax in France.
Income tax only represents ( I cannot remember the exact figure) about 30% of the public income.
About 25% gets deducted from your salary each month, and that's purely the equivalent of National Insurance contributions in the uk and does NOT include Income Tax. Income tax is payed annualy in France, and involves loads of paperwork, and it is also very complicated.
There are also two different sets of local taxes, more or less equivalent to the uk council tax. Also if you own a home you will be taxed a proportion of it's value each year. You would also pay more VAT in France.
I reckon a typical pilot living in France would see at least half of his salary going up in smoke due to NI+income tax, not including all the other taxes.
So if you want to pay less tax, France is not the place to go I'm afraid. BUT property is cheap, food excellent, and interest rates are still quite low.