Thread: european IRS?

In the UK we pay Income Tax, National Insurance which lic services towards public services and Council Tax which goes to local councils for upkeep of roads, buildings, schools etc.. Although in my beloved Liverpool it pays for so much more, like sending the council leader to Las Vegas so he can be at the premier of a Beatles musical, or sending the council leader and his cronies to Cannes for a meeting on a yacht because they simply couldn't have held it in Liverpool....Liverpool council is really corrupt basically. It's like the Wire but with better accents.

Am I missing anything out?

We have federal income tax and GST, some state sales taxes (cars, houses, etc), and "rates" which is a local government tax on landowners only that pays for local roads, rubbish, etc.

Local councils aren't a big deal here at all and they don't do a whole lot of super-important stuff like US or UK and are mostly run by amatuers (literally, all but I think they mayor have day jobs). They usually are just small sections of a city or a large sparsely populated area with five-figure populations.