Tax revenues in the set of advanced economies of the world continue to increase. The latest edition of the annual report "Revenue Statistics" by the OECD, recently published, reveals that the average ratio between taxes and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the OECD increased slightly in 2017, standing at 34.2%, compared to 34% the previous year.
This average percentage is the highest since this calculation began in 1965. Previous maximum levels occurred in 2000 (33.8%) and 2007 (33.6%), in addition to 2016 (34%).
The country with the highest percentage of taxes paid relative to GDP was France, with 46.2%, ahead of Denmark (46%), Belgium (44.6%), Sweden (44%), Finland (43.3%) and Italy (42.4%).
Spain was in the middle of the table, with a percentage of 33.7%, half a point below the OECD average (34.2%), and half a point more than the previous year (33.2%)
The five countries with the lowest taxes were South Korea (26.9%), Turkey (24.9%), Ireland (22.8%), Chile (20.2%) and Mexico (16.2%).
In 19 of the 34 OECD countries that provided data for 2017, the tax/GDP levels were on the rise, while in the remaining 15 countries they decreased.
The countries where the relationship between taxes and GDP grew the most in 2017 were Israel (1.4%) and the United States (1.3%).
The following chart, provided by the OECD, shows the evolution for all countries from 2000 to 2017.