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Since we’re talking income tax rates, it occurred to me to compare my pay stubs from the US and Sweden, having recently moved from a relative low-tax environment to a relative high-tax one. It’s interesting! /1 
I’m comparing two more or less randomly selected monthly pay stubs here, and obviously the results are not going to be representative except maybe for moderately successful mid-career academics with a child. /2
I paid less taxes in the US, where I lived in Virginia: 23% instead of 36%. This is a sizable difference, obviously: keeping 77% of your income is much better than keeping 64%. /3
But the difference is probably not as large as people would think: only 13 percentage points between “capitalist” America and “socialist” Sweden? /4
And I’m comfortably in the top quartile with respect to income, meaning that the difference for most people would be smaller. /5
Moreover, the difference is more than absorbed by the additional costs of healthcare and daycare for the one child we had then. /6
In the US, 4% of my paycheck went to healthcare, whereas in Sweden that money comes out of your taxes. /7
In the US, where daycare was provided and subsidized by my employer, I still paid 21% of my paycheck in daycare fees; in Sweden, out-of-pocket fees correspond to 1% of my income. /8
In addition, daycare fees are more than offset by an unconditional child allowance. /9
So net of healthcare and daycare costs, and including the unconditional child allowance, I have more money in my pocket in Sweden (63%) than I did in the States (52%). /10
tl;dr Taxes are lower in the States, but not as much lower as you might think. Also, Americans really should demand more value for their money! /11
Also, the marginal tax rates that figure in many discussions are quite far removed from the percentage of your income that goes to the IRS (or its equivalent). /12
CORRECTION: I got the daycare fees I paid in the US wrong, it turns out. Mea culpa. This changes the percentages I reported, but not the qualitative conclusions. Here’s the correct graph.
People seem confused about the point of this comparison, so let me address that. (Also note the correction at the end of the thread.) /i
The background was a discussion about personal income taxes, and the question I asked was: if you have a job that pays 100 per month in the US vs. Sweden, what would your pay stub say remains after taxes are withheld? The answers for me were 77 vs. 64. /ii
But then the US pay stub has a separate deduction for health insurance (4), which which the Swedish one does not, so I included that. /iii
In the US, my employer also charged me for my daughter’s daycare (figure should have been 12), which in Sweden is covered by a small fee (of 1.5) /iv
These numbers are relevant if you want to know how much of the 100 will ultimately end up in your pocket, which is the question I (for one) asked myself back when I contemplated making the move. /v
If you’re asking other questions there may be other comparisons that are more relevant. If so, nothing should stop you from doing your own analysis. /vi
