Tax burden in EU countries – a comparative study

Abstract

The paper is focused on the overall tax burden and tax policy of European countries. The theoretical part of the paper explains the term tax burden and summarizes its measuring possibilities. It especially deals with the tax quota as the most generally applied indicator but some alternative indicators, such as the tax freedom day or tax misery index, are also mentioned. The empirical part of the paper is aimed at the comparison of the tax burden of “old” and “new” EU member states following the mentioned indicators. Certain tax policy recommendations are formulated based on performed comparisons.