Despite the stereotype of heavy European income taxes on the rich, Paris relies disproportionately on social-insurance, payroll and property taxes

See WSJ editorial All the Taxes in France Even before the fuel tax, France had the highest burden in the West. Excerpts:

"The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its annual Revenue Statistics report this week, and France topped the charts, with a tax take equal to 46.2% of GDP in 2017. That’s more than Denmark (46%), Sweden (44%) and Germany (37.5%), and far more than the OECD average (34.2%) or the U.S. (27.1%, which includes all levels of government).

France doesn’t collect that revenue in the ways you might think. Despite the stereotype of heavy European income taxes on the rich, Paris relies disproportionately on social-insurance, payroll and property taxes. Social taxes account for 37% of French revenue; the OECD average is 26%. Payroll and property taxes contribute 3% and 9%, compared to the OECD averages of 1% and 6%.

This is another reminder that rapacious states can’t support themselves solely with progressive income taxes. The rich aren’t rich enough to fund the modern welfare state’s ambitions, and their labor and wealth are too mobile to pin down in high-tax jurisdictions. The real money is in the middle class, whose labor income is far easier to tax, especially if the tax is disguised as a social “contribution.”

Then Europe adds a regressive consumption tax, the value-added tax. In France, VAT and other consumption taxes make up 24% of revenue, and that’s on the low side compared to an OECD average of 33%. Consumption taxes often fall hardest on the poor and middle class, who devote a greater proportion of their income to consumption."

"Increases in charges on gasoline and diesel clobber the same rural and exurban French who already pay in so many other ways."

"Mr. Macron may now cave by re-imposing a wealth tax he killed last year. The tax helps drive productive French out of the country, though it raised only some €5 billion a year, compared to the €372 billion Paris raised via social taxes in 2016."