Monday

Income tax in the Netherlands

Talking with my friends here in Eindhoven, I was surprise about their knowledge of the amount of taxes they pay to the government.
First she told me that the tax was about 30%, but one day later she called me back telling me that she was wrong the first time because the real tax was 42%. I was surprise, but I thought she is the one that is paying taxes, so she should know really well the amount of taxes she is paying.

I was assuming she was right until yesterday, when I realize that she might be wrong because I had the opportunity to take a look to the gross and the net amount of a salary and it was quite clear that taxes weren't 42%.

Thanks to Wikipedia right now I know how easy are the taxes to the incomes in Netherlands, because it is a step based income taxation.
Update: It is not that easy. I made a mistake because the steps taxes are only one of the aspects of the final incoming tax and they are named as Box 1 taxes. There are two other taxes, but a new worker might not use them because they involve account savings and investments(box3), and substantial business interest (box 2). It is important to point out that it is incorrect to use directly the Box1 taxes as the final taxes(that was my error) because you need to subtract an amount of 2043€. Yeeeeees! I am happy I was wrong.

I made this easy sheet, in order to have a good answer if a friend ask me about the taxes here in Netherlands.
You can play a little bit with the sheet by introducing a new value in the gross salary per month.