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Having lived in Germany for four years now...and making $60k a year...I can tell you that you that by the time they take in all their taxes...including the TV tax ($180), the gas tax ($3 for each gallon), the sales tax (16 percent), the water-run off tax, the dog tax, the vehicle tax ($250 min for each vehicle), and the personal income tax of 28 percent (it goes higher if your pay goes higher)....there is not a lot left at the end of the month. I can attest to that fact. A full tank of gas each 9 days runs about $50. They just raised the flower tax...it used to be 6 percent and now its 14 percent. As for tax credits...they really don't believe in IRAs....but they do allow extreme risk investments (new business ventures, wind energy, etc) to count towards credit but there is a limit.

As for the rich...they have discovered that you simply peel off funds and take the cash or income out of the country. For example...I knew of a person that worked on Saturdays performing roof repairs...and took the $12k per year that he got off these small jobs over across the border to a Lux bank...deposited it quietly there. There is no tax on that income and they cannot figure this out. I have been told that Doctors work the same kind of deals with a little practice in their house basement for their special patients. The patient slips them some cash and the doctor quietly sends the money off each month. You see a lot of folks around age 50 just packing up and going off to Spain...buying houses with cash....and you know that this money did not come from their German bank account.

This is the way you make the system work....and why they are missing billions of Euros...everyone is screwing the system. They all disagree on the tax system and avoid messing with it.