Surtax

Taxes...the bane of every hard-working, talented, high-earning person's existence. What’s worse than taxes? Taxes on top of taxes, a.k.a. surtaxes.

A surtax is a tax that’s levied on top of another already-existing tax. A piggyback tax, oftentimes earmarked for a specific purpose...otherwise, they’d just raise the already-existing tax.

For instance, a 10% surtax was placed on individual and corporate income to fund the Vietnam war. In progressive tax countries like the U.S., the burden of surtaxes falls more on higher earners, the higher the marginal tax rate is.

Since surtaxes are asking for a lot (we’re already being taxed, man), they’re oftentimes only applied to people and businesses making a certain minimum income. France was known for their wealth tax, a surtax on people who make more than a certain threshold of money. However, the French wealth tax disappeared in 2017.

Who else has played the surtax game? Germany, who probably takes the trophy for longest surtax on its people ever. There was a flat 7.5% surtax on all personal income in 1991, which was reduced to 5.5% in 1998, which is still in place. This almost three-decade-long surtax was for the purpose of joining Eastern and Western Germany. Are we there yet, guys? Time will tell if this surtax ever falls off of German’s plates.