Try this Turkish tales on for size:
The soaring prices owe not only to the nosediving lira but also the exorbitant taxes that Ankara levies on automobiles — a 18% value-added tax (VAT) and a special consumption tax (SCT) that varies according to the vehicle’s base price and engine size. The total of taxes often exceeds the base price of the vehicle.
Under the most recent tax amendments in August, the lowest levies — a VAT of 18% plus a SCT of 45% — apply to cars with a base price of less than 92,000 liras and an engine cylinder volume smaller than 1600cc. In the upper tiers, the SCT rates range from 50% to 220%. A car with an engine in the 1600cc-2000cc range and a base price of 221,000 liras would end up with a price tag of nearly 600,000 liras, including a SCT of 287,000 liras and a VAT of 91,000 liras. For millions of consumers, such prices preclude car ownership or limit it drastically. [AL-Monitor]
[Bold mine.]
American taxes are best thought of as investments, investments in national defense, education, and many other services which enable the American way of life. We may squabble which are necessary and which are frivolous, but at least we can hope that they’re wisely spent.
Those Turkish taxes, meanwhile, feel more confiscatory, a way to cover the foolishness of the people who’ve clambered to the top of the political pyramid, and exhibit incompetence and power-lust as their primary motivations.
