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Spaniards pay third highest tax in Europe

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Spaniards pay third highest tax in Europe
Spain has seen its top marginal rate climb from 45 percent in 2011 to 52 percent in 2013. Photo: Imagesofmoney/Flickr

People in Spain have the third highest top marginal tax rate in Europe with only the wealthy Danes and the Swedes coughing up more, a new report shows.

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People living in Spain have the third highest marginal tax rate in Europe at 52 percent, the KPMG study into taxes reveals.

This rate kicks in with earnings of over €300,000.20 ($414,000), although that figure can differ across Spain's autonomous regions. 

The 52 percent figure puts Spain behind top tax payers Sweden, where this rate is 56.6 percent, and Denmark, which has a rate of 55.56 percent. 

Rounding out the top five in the KPMG tables are the Netherlands and Finland.

This means Spain, along with Finland and Slovenia, was among the biggest movers in this year's KPMG report, which saw a total of nine countries raising taxes for high income earners, and four lowering them.

Spain has seen its top marginal rate climb from 45 percent in 2011 to 52 percent in 2013.

"Many countries need to consolidate their public finances in the wake of the financial crisis and increasing taxes for high income earners is considered necessary," Tina Zetterlund, head of the tax department at KPMG in Sweden, said in a statement.

"Even if the increases often give limited revenue to the state coffers, they're seen as being politically necessary to gain acceptance for benefit reductions that hit low-income earners hard."

The KPMG report compares tax rates in over 100 countries, including the 33 industrialized countries of the OECD. Hungary pulled in the lowest spot of the OECD countries, with a highest marginal tax rate of just 16 percent.

External link: KPMG Individual income tax rates table »

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