The 1841 Foundation has released a new version of the Tax Hell Index.
And just like last year and in 2022, let’s see what nations qualified because of the combination of bad fiscal policy and low-quality governance.
There is a tie for the world’s worst tax hell, So “congratulations” to Russia and Venezuela.
The Tax Hell Index mostly focuses on Europe and the Americas, which explains how some awful nations in Asia and Africa are not on the list.
I’m somewhat surprised that Romania is in the “risky” category, but I’m not shocked by Hungary since its policies are not good by European standards.
Some readers will be surprised to see Argentina tied for the third-worst tax hell, but the Index is based on 2023 data and President Milei did not take office until the end of that year.
So it will be interesting to see Argentina’s score in the next Tax Hell Index (and I’m also looking forward to how much that nation improves in Economic Freedom of the World and the Index of Economic Freedom).
Let’s hope the improvement is dramatic because Argentina is one of seven nations that has appeared in all four editions of the Tax Hell Index. Not exactly something to be proud about.
By the way, 10 countries ranked at “tax heavens,” with Ireland being the best of the best.
The United States was not among those nations, though it is a bit better than average. So lots of room for improvement, but I suspect America will get worse rather than better in future editions of the Index.
P.S. While I expect Argentina’s score to improve significantly, it will be very interesting to see what happens in Ukraine when the war ends. I don’t know when that will happen, but I’ll predict western nations will offer lots of aid for reconstruction. I fear that money will be wasted unless somehow it is used as leverage to improve Ukraine’s awful economic policy. But since foreign aid usually leads to more bad policy instead of good policy, it’s hard to be optimistic.
