Rules
What must I comply with
Corporate and top income-tax rates, VAT from each authority, what the law says about women working and owning, and the rules that decide where you are taxed.
Tools in this section
Corporate Tax Rates
Statutory corporate income-tax rates — combined, central and small-business where one exists — from OECD Corporate Tax Statistics, compared and ranked.
GET /api/tax-rates.json
Top Income-Tax Rate & Threshold
The top statutory personal income-tax rate and the earnings at which it starts, as a multiple of the average wage — OECD members, compared and ranked.
GET /api/tax-rates.json
VAT & GST Rates
Standard and reduced VAT/GST rates for 41 countries, each read from the tax authority's own page and served with that page and the date it was checked.
GET /api/vat.json
Women, Business and the Law
What the statute says about women moving, working, being paid, marrying, owning and retiring — the World Bank's coded reading, by country, with retirement ages.
GET /api/legal-profile.json
Statutory Employment Rules
The floors a job's law sets — minimum paid annual leave, notice, probation and weekly hours — curated from labour authorities, with what the law leaves unset shown as unset.
GET /api/employment-rules.json
Tax Residency & Schengen Tracker
One itinerary → Schengen 90/180 compliance, each country's tax-residency threshold (183-day, Cyprus 60-day, US SPT, UK), and the tax cost of triggering it.
POST /api/residency-tracker
Every figure here is computed, not collected
Nothing on this site is a crowdsourced estimate or an editorial top ten. Each tool runs a published dataset — World Bank, IMF, OECD, Eurostat, WHO, HUD — through an engine you can call yourself, and every JSON response carries a citation naming the source and the year it refers to. Where a figure is modelled rather than measured, the page says so.
Each tool above has a free JSON API and an MCP tool, listed on the card. See how it works or the ranked answers if you would rather start from a shortlist than a calculator.
Not sure which tool to start with? Ask the adviser what matters to you (Pro), and it will work through these figures for you.
Other questions
- Compare countries — What is my money actually worth there?
- What a month costs — What does living there actually cost?
- Earning and staying — What should I charge, and how long does my money last?
- Where to go, and whether you can — Where should I go — and am I allowed to?
- Working from there — Can I actually do my job from there?
- Will my money work there — Will my money work there?
- Is it safe, and what do I need before I go — Is it safe, and what do I need before I go?
- Can I afford to retire there — Can I afford to retire there?
- Can I run a business there — Can I run a business there?
Statutory figures with their source, for information only — not legal or tax advice. For where an itinerary makes you tax-resident, use the tax residency & Schengen tracker.
What is the corporate tax rate there?
The statutory rate a company pays on profit — the combined figure includes the average sub-national rate — and the lower rate some countries reserve for small business. Statutory, not effective: what a given company actually pays depends on incentives and regimes this table does not model.
| Country | Combined | Central | Small business | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 12.5% | 12.5% | — | 2026 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 30.1% | 15.8% | — | 2026 |
| 🇺🇸 United States | 25.5% | 21.0% | 25.3% | 2026 |
- Statutory rates and legal indicators as published by the named source, for information only. This is not legal or tax advice; how a rule applies to a person or a company depends on facts this tool does not hold.
- Rates are statutory, not effective: incentives, surtaxes, special regimes, treaty relief and sub-national variation beyond the averaged combined rate are not modelled.
- The top-rate threshold is expressed as a multiple of the country's average wage (OECD's definition), which is what makes it comparable across currencies; the absolute figure is that multiple times the average wage shown.
Lowest combined corporate rate
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates 9.0%
- 🇭🇺 Hungary 9.0%
- 🇮🇪 Ireland 12.5%
- 🇸🇬 Singapore 17.0%
- 🇵🇱 Poland 19.0%
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland 19.5%
- 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 20.0%
- 🇹🇭 Thailand 20.0%
Full ranking: countries with the lowest corporate tax.
OECD Corporate Tax Statistics, statutory rates, newest year per country (41 of 41). Refreshed 2026-09-04. JSON
Where does the top income-tax rate start?
The highest statutory rate on personal income and the earnings at which it applies, as a multiple of the country's average wage — the OECD's definition, which is what makes "the top rate starts at 4.4× the average wage" mean the same thing in Berlin and Dublin. Beside it, the marginal rate at that point once employee social contributions are added.
| Country | Top rate | Starts at | Marginal incl. SSC | Brackets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 45.0% | 2.2× avg wage | 47.0% | — |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 47.5% | 4.4× avg wage | 47.5% | — |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | 56.0% | 7.7× avg wage | 56.2% | — |
- Statutory rates and legal indicators as published by the named source, for information only. This is not legal or tax advice; how a rule applies to a person or a company depends on facts this tool does not hold.
- Rates are statutory, not effective: incentives, surtaxes, special regimes, treaty relief and sub-national variation beyond the averaged combined rate are not modelled.
- The top-rate threshold is expressed as a multiple of the country's average wage (OECD's definition), which is what makes it comparable across currencies; the absolute figure is that multiple times the average wage shown.
Lowest top rate
- 🇭🇺 Hungary 15.0%
- 🇨🇿 Czechia 23.0%
- 🇵🇱 Poland 32.0%
- 🇲🇽 Mexico 35.0%
- 🇨🇴 Colombia 39.0%
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand 39.0%
- 🇳🇴 Norway 39.7%
- 🇨🇱 Chile 40.0%
OECD Tax Database, top statutory personal income-tax rate and threshold, newest year per country (26 of 41 — OECD members only). Refreshed 2026-09-04. No OECD schedule for Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, DR Congo, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe. JSON
What is the VAT rate there, and says who?
The standard and reduced rates of value-added or goods-and-services tax, read from each national tax authority's own page — linked beside the figure with the date it was checked. Countries with no single national rate are described as they are, never given one.
| Country | Tax | Standard | Reduced | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | VAT | 20% | 5%, 0% | gov.uk 2026-09-04 |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | Umsatzsteuer | 19% | 7% | gesetze-im-internet.de 2026-09-04 |
| 🇺🇸 United States | State and local sales tax | — | — | irs.gov 2026-09-04 (secondary) |
- United States: No federal VAT or sales tax. State rates run from 0% (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon) to about 7.25% (California) plus local additions; combined rates commonly 6-10%.
- Statutory rates and legal indicators as published by the named source, for information only. This is not legal or tax advice; how a rule applies to a person or a company depends on facts this tool does not hold.
- Rates are the headline statutory rates; exemptions, zero-rating, regional rates and registration rules vary by supply and by taxpayer. Each figure names the authority page it was read from and the date — verify there before relying on it.
- One or more entries were read from a secondary source; see each row's confidence.
Lowest standard rate
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates 5%
- 🇨🇦 Canada 5%
- 🇹🇭 Thailand 7%
- 🇳🇬 Nigeria 7.5%
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland 8.1%
- 🇸🇬 Singapore 9%
- 🇦🇺 Australia 10%
- 🇯🇵 Japan 10%
Not ranked, having no single national rate: Brazil, Malaysia, United States. Full ranking: countries with the lowest VAT.
Hand-curated from each authority's published page; 19 of 41 read first-hand, 22 from a secondary source where the authority's site could not be fetched (marked). Reviewed 2026-09-04; not a live feed. JSON
What does the law say about women there?
The World Bank's 2026 reading of the statute — whether a woman can move, work, be paid, marry, own and retire on the same terms as a man — scored by topic, with the retirement ages the pension rules set for each. It reads the law as written, not as enforced.
🇩🇪 Germany — Legal Frameworks index 85.43 / 100
| Mobility | Workplace | Pay | Marriage | Parenthood | Entrepreneurship | Assets | Pension |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 79.25 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 62.5 | 100 | 100 |
| Topic | Provision | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Mobility | Can choose where to live in the same way as a man | Yes |
| Mobility | Can travel abroad in the same way as a man | Yes |
| Mobility | Can pass citizenship to her children | Yes |
| Workplace | Can get a job in the same way as a man | Yes |
| Workplace | Law prohibits discrimination in employment based on gender | Partial (0.67) |
| Workplace | nonDiscriminationInEmployment | Yes |
| Workplace | Can request flexible work arrangements | Partial (0.5) |
| Pay | Law mandates equal pay for work of equal value | Yes |
| Pay | Can work at night in the same way as a man | Yes |
| Pay | dangerousJobsPermitted | Yes |
| Marriage | Can obtain a divorce in the same way as a man | Yes |
| Marriage | Can be head of household in the same way as a man | Yes |
| Marriage | noObedienceRule | Yes |
| Entrepreneurship | Can register a business in the same way as a man | Yes |
| Entrepreneurship | Law prohibits discrimination in access to credit based on gender | Yes |
| Assets | Equal ownership rights to immovable property | Yes |
| Assets | Sons and daughters have equal inheritance rights | Yes |
| Assets | Surviving spouses have equal inheritance rights | Yes |
| Pension | equalRetirementAges | Yes |
Full retirement age: men 66, women 66.
- Statutory rates and legal indicators as published by the named source, for information only. This is not legal or tax advice; how a rule applies to a person or a company depends on facts this tool does not hold.
- Answers are WBL's coded reading of the statute as written; a true says a provision exists, not that it is enforced. A partial answer keeps WBL's fraction rather than rounding to yes or no.
Highest index
- 🇪🇸 Spain 97.93
- 🇫🇷 France 92.93
- 🇮🇹 Italy 92.93
- 🇮🇪 Ireland 92.1
- 🇦🇺 Australia 91.88
- 🇬🇷 Greece 91.25
- 🇵🇹 Portugal 91.05
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand 90
World Bank Women, Business and the Law 2026, Legal Frameworks indicators (41 of 41). Paid-leave days live on the Work hub's working-time tab. Refreshed 2026-09-04. JSON
What does a job's law guarantee?
The minimums set by statute: paid annual leave, the notice an employer and an employee must give, how long probation may last and the ordinary weekly-hours ceiling. Contracts and collective agreements usually give more. Hand-curated from labour authorities; each entry carries the page it rests on and the date. Not legal advice.
🇩🇪 Germany
- Minimum paid leave
- 24 working days a year
- Notice from employer
- 4 weeks — Four weeks to the 15th or end of a month, rising with tenure (Section 622 BGB); two weeks during probation.
- Notice from employee
- 4 weeks
- Probation at most
- 6 months
- Weekly hours ceiling
- 48 hours
- In short
- 24 working days on a six-day week (Werktage), which is 20 on a five-day week. Federal law; collective agreements usually give more.
- Source
- gesetze-im-internet.de · 2026-09-13 (secondary)
- Statutory rates and legal indicators as published by the named source, for information only. This is not legal or tax advice; how a rule applies to a person or a company depends on facts this tool does not hold.
- Statutory floors only: collective agreements, contracts and regional law usually give more, and many figures rise with tenure (see noticeNote and note). Working-day and calendar-day leave are not the same length and are never converted; a fact the law does not set is absent, not zero.
- One or more entries were read from secondary reporting because the official page could not be fetched; see each row's confidence.
Most statutory paid leave
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates 30 calendar days
- 🇧🇷 Brazil 30 calendar days
- 🇪🇸 Spain 30 calendar days
- 🇫🇷 France 30 working days
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 28 working days
- 🇩🇰 Denmark 25 working days
- 🇳🇴 Norway 25 working days
- 🇸🇪 Sweden 25 working days
- 🇩🇪 Germany 24 working days
- 🇵🇹 Portugal 22 working days
- 🇪🇬 Egypt 21 working days
- 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 21 calendar days
- 🇿🇦 South Africa 21 calendar days
- 🇦🇺 Australia 20 working days
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland 20 working days
- 🇨🇿 Czechia 20 working days
- 🇬🇷 Greece 20 working days
- 🇭🇺 Hungary 20 working days
- 🇮🇪 Ireland 20 working days
- 🇮🇹 Italy 20 working days
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands 20 working days
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand 20 working days
- 🇵🇱 Poland 20 working days
- 🇨🇱 Chile 15 working days
- 🇨🇴 Colombia 15 working days
- 🇰🇷 South Korea 15 working days
- 🇦🇷 Argentina 14 calendar days
- 🇹🇷 Türkiye 14 working days
- 🇮🇩 Indonesia 12 working days
- 🇮🇳 India 12 working days
- 🇲🇽 Mexico 12 working days
- 🇻🇳 Vietnam 12 working days
- 🇨🇦 Canada 10 working days
- 🇯🇵 Japan 10 working days
- 🇲🇾 Malaysia 8 working days
- 🇸🇬 Singapore 7 working days
- 🇳🇬 Nigeria 6 working days
- 🇹🇭 Thailand 6 working days
- 🇨🇳 China 5 working days
- 🇵🇭 Philippines 5 working days
No statutory paid leave: US.
Hand-curated from labour authorities; the law sets a minimum paid leave in 40 of 41 countries. 4 entries were read first-hand, 37 from consistent secondary reporting where the official site could not be fetched (marked). Reviewed 2026-09-13. JSON