>From my daughter: We pay an effective rate of 8.5% in direct tax on our combined household income. This is income tax (which pays for government services including the NHS) and National Insurance which pays for pensions and benefits.
The largest indirect tax is VAT (sales tax) which is 20%. This is less noticeable than sales tax in the USA because prices in the shops include this in the price rather than being added when checking out. Corporation tax (tax on business profits) is currently 20% (this is being reduced to 19% in 2017 and is planned to go down to 17% in 2020).
