I like how they framed this: "It has also cut the top marginal tax rate by 27 percentage points since 1983, to 57%... This year it is cutting the corporate-tax rate from 26.3% to 22%."
You might also note their top marginal income tax rate is 22 percentage points higher than the US, and their corporate tax rate is 6 percentage points higher. As other commenters have noted, this is not a high point for The Economist.
EDIT: yup, completely wrong on the corporate tax rate. 16% was the _effective_ rate.
They can because VAT is the ultimate cash cow.
For example in Finland VAT accounts for 40-50% of all tax proceeds. In 2010 VAT proceeds were 12.7 Bn while Income & Capital Gains taxes were 7 Bn.
You might also note their top marginal income tax rate is 22 percentage points higher than the US, and their corporate tax rate is 6 percentage points higher. As other commenters have noted, this is not a high point for The Economist.
EDIT: yup, completely wrong on the corporate tax rate. 16% was the _effective_ rate.