[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"question:19:en-US":3},{"metadata":4,"sys":15,"fields":35},{"tags":5,"concepts":14},[6,11],{"sys":7},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":10},"Link","Tag","global",{"sys":12},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":13},"partnership",[],{"space":16,"id":20,"type":21,"createdAt":22,"updatedAt":23,"environment":24,"publishedVersion":28,"revision":29,"contentType":30,"locale":34},{"sys":17},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"Space","ghhpjogyw4x7","d32b883ebb1fec3f25f2a8318e479154","Entry","2021-11-11T07:17:16.614Z","2024-09-16T12:51:18.340Z",{"sys":25},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},"master","Environment",82,23,{"sys":31},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":33},"ContentType","question","en-US",{"globalId":36,"answers":37,"answersAsImages":58,"wrongPercentage":28,"name":94,"questionText":95,"statistics":96,"veryWrongStatistics":118,"correctSentence":139,"youWereWrong":140,"youWereRight":141,"dataSourceShortText":142,"dataSourceLinkLongText":143,"extendedAnswerText":144,"headingVeryWrong":145,"youWereVeryWrong":140,"headingWrong":145},"19",[38,60,77],{"metadata":39,"sys":42,"fields":55},{"tags":40,"concepts":41},[],[],{"space":43,"id":45,"type":21,"createdAt":46,"updatedAt":47,"environment":48,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":52,"locale":34},{"sys":44},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"22a294e055c755cfb89dda25ff2ae4a0","2021-11-11T07:17:16.654Z","2024-09-16T12:51:18.451Z",{"sys":49},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},25,20,{"sys":53},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},"answer",{"globalId":56,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":59},"19-a1",true,false,"Around 2%",{"metadata":61,"sys":64,"fields":74},{"tags":62,"concepts":63},[],[],{"space":65,"id":67,"type":21,"createdAt":68,"updatedAt":69,"environment":70,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":72,"locale":34},{"sys":66},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"1ffd4d1e9f117ca47cbed7778857e2a8","2021-11-11T07:17:16.684Z","2024-09-16T12:51:18.538Z",{"sys":71},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":73},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":75,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":76},"19-a2","Around 12%",{"metadata":78,"sys":81,"fields":91},{"tags":79,"concepts":80},[],[],{"space":82,"id":84,"type":21,"createdAt":85,"updatedAt":86,"environment":87,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":89,"locale":34},{"sys":83},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"9b5025916d0e31752b0aa77b0349f172","2021-11-11T07:17:16.712Z","2024-09-16T12:51:18.577Z",{"sys":88},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":90},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":92,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":93},"19-a3","Around 22%","High-income gov revenue from customs","The governments of high-income countries get how much of their revenue from customs and import duties?",[97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117],"uk 0.852","swe 0.74221620417982","nor 0.807039929015081","fin 0.78127706390607","dnk 0.902578565093143","usa 0.75","bra 0.77","fra 0.77","deu 0.83","jpn 0.76","mex 0.93","rus 0.86","esp 0.75","swe 0.74","mys 0.95","mar 0.84","zaf 0.85","ind 0.8","pak 0.74","nga 0.79","phl 0.76",[119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138],"uk 0.36","usa 0.24","bra 0.43","fra 0.31","deu 0.34","jpn 0.33","mex 0.40","rus 0.48","esp 0.37","swe 0.21","mys 0.44","mar 0.46","dnk 0.38","fin 0.22","nor 0.29","zaf 0.46","ind 0.38","pak 0.43","nga 0.39","phl 0.44","Around 2% of a government’s revenue in high-income countries comes from import duties. ","Many hugely overestimate how much rich governments get from taxes on imports. Lots of products come from abroad, but almost all government incomes in rich countries come from taxing citizens and domestic companies.","Many hugely overestimate how much rich governments get from taxes on imports. They probably assume import tax is big money for governments as lots of products are imported.","Sources: UNU WIDER and World Bank","On average, import taxes as a share of government revenue is somewhere between 1.8 % and 2.3 %, so we use “around 2%” as a proxy. Probably this number is even lower than 1.8%  but because no single source gives an exact number and it also varies between countries and over years, a number of 2% is reasonable to avoid understating it.\n\nGapminder estimated import taxes as share of government revenue in high-income countries based on revenue data published by UNU WIDER[1] and the World Bank[2][3]. The data from WIDER includes all trade taxes, including export taxes which are so small that we simply ignored them. For a detailed methodology, see [4].\n\nWe use the definition of high-income countries from the World Bank[5].\nMany governments of the oil rich states in the Gulf Cooperation Council[6] have lots of income from oil revenue to finance their expenditures. Oil revenue accounted for between 50% and 90% of their total government revenues during 2012–2015.\n\nWe double-checked our calculations against [this report](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.oecd.org\u002Ftax\u002Ftax-policy\u002Frevenue-statistics-highlights-brochure.pdf) from the OECD and we also collected feedback from two independent researchers of finance and macroeconomics, who confirmed they consider our correct answer to be reliable.\n\n[1]  [Government revenues as share of GDP, UNU WIDER, World Institute for Development Economics Research, Nov 9 2020](https:\u002F\u002Fwww5.wider.unu.edu\u002F#\u002F?graph=line&indicators=3,8&activeIndicators=8,3&countries=ARG,URY,SWE,SAU&activeCountries=ARG,URY,SWE,SAU)  \n[2]  [World Bank - Tax revenue (% of GDP)](https:\u002F\u002Fdatahelpdesk.worldbank.org\u002Fknowledgebase\u002Farticles\u002F906522-data-updates-and-errata)  \n[3]  [World Bank - Customs and other import duties (% of tax revenue)](https:\u002F\u002Fdata.worldbank.org\u002Findicator\u002FGC.TAX.IMPT.ZS)  \n[4]  [Share of Government incomes from trade taxes, calculated by Gapminder](https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.google.com\u002Fspreadsheets\u002Fd\u002F11t1VKBOgigOJmiS09cIPgIHnxD5nSWq_ZkdZvy-hkOE\u002Fedit#gid=1391590261)  \n[5]  [New country classifications by income level: 2019-2020, the World Bank](https:\u002F\u002Fblogs.worldbank.org\u002Fopendata\u002Fnew-country-classifications-income-level-2019-2020)  \n[6]  [Gulf Cooperation Council, Annual Meeting of Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors, October 26, 2016 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.imf.org\u002Fexternal\u002Fnp\u002Fpp\u002Feng\u002F2016\u002F102616.pdf)  \n[7]  [Revenue Statistics 2019 Tax revenue trends in the OECD](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.oecd.org\u002Ftax\u002Ftax-policy\u002Frevenue-statistics-highlights-brochure.pdf)","A long time ago, most rich cities had walls around them which enabled all goods that were brought into the cities to be taxed. Governments of countries and states all across the world have used this method to finance their costs, such as military, police and services to the citizens.\n\nMost people believe this is still a large part of the government revenues in rich countries today. As more products than ever before are imported from abroad, it may seem intuitive, but the import taxes have been lowered everywhere to enable more trade. For all high-income countries, it’s only 2% of the total government incomes, with some variation over years and across countries.\n\nIn most low- and middle-income countries, the governments still make a substantial amount of money from import taxes, often because a large part of their economies are informal and difficult to tax. In low-income countries, taxes on imports are also a way to tax the richer segment of the population as they are usually the consumers of imported goods.\n\nAlmost all the rich countries’ government incomes come from their taxes on domestic companies, people’s salaries and the value added tax on goods and services.\n\nIn some rich countries, import taxes are discussed a lot as a potential way to protect jobs and industries from foreign competition. And some specific import taxes can of course become real trade barriers for some products even if they don’t look impressive as part of the total governmental budget.\n\nIt’s worth noting that many governments of the oil rich states pay most of their expenditures with oil revenues. And there is actually one category of small high-income countries, where income from import taxes still make up a large part of government incomes: small islands. Here are some examples - 10-20%: Bahamas, Palau, St. Kitts and Nevis.\n\n### Why is it a problem that people are wrong about this?\nIf we don’t know the facts we might believe politicians when they talk loudly and confidently about how putting tariffs on imports will bring in lots of money. In reality, import taxes bring in little income to rich countries and if extra taxes are added to imports they normally just mean higher prices for consumers.\n\n### Why are people wrong about this?\nAll the talk of trade wars and tariffs make this seem like a large amount of money instead of the small fraction it really is.\n\n### How does the share of import taxes vary between countries?\nAverages conceal differences between countries. Although import taxes as a share of government revenue across all high-income countries is 2%, there are some variations:\n0.1-0.3%: Cyprus, Iceland and Norway\n0.5-0.8%: Chile, Israel, Japan, San Marino, Switzerland\n1-2%: South Korea, Kuwait, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, United states\n2-4%: Australia, Bahrain, New Zealand, Seychelles, Uruguay, Panama \n\n### Can I trust this fact?\nYes. On average, import taxes as a share of government revenue is somewhere between 1.8 % and 2.3 %, so we use “around 2%” as a proxy. Probably this number is even lower than 1.8%  but because no single source gives an exact number and it also varies between countries and over years, a number of 2% is reasonable to avoid understating it.\n\nGapminder estimated import taxes as a share of government revenue in high-income countries based on revenue data published by UNU WIDER and the World Bank. The data from WIDER includes all trade taxes, including export taxes which are so small that we simply ignored them. For a detailed methodology, see our calculations [here](https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.google.com\u002Fspreadsheets\u002Fd\u002F11t1VKBOgigOJmiS09cIPgIHnxD5nSWq_ZkdZvy-hkOE\u002Fedit#gid=1391590261).\n\nWe use the definition of high-income countries from the World Bank.\nMany governments of the oil rich states in the Gulf Cooperation Council have lots of income from oil revenue to finance their expenditures. Oil revenue accounted for between 50% and 90% of their total government revenues during 2012–2015.\n\nWe double-checked our calculations against [this report](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.oecd.org\u002Ftax\u002Ftax-policy\u002Frevenue-statistics-highlights-brochure.pdf) from the OECD and we also collected feedback from two independent researchers of finance and macroeconomics, who confirmed they consider our correct answer to be reliable.\n","Customs are not goldmines"]