Do you want to pay zero income tax? Here's where to move to

Income tax varies massively around the world, from a rate of zero in a handful of countries to the top rate standing at over 50 per cent in others.

European nations dominate the top of the list when it comes to income tax, with top rates standing at over 50 per cent, but 15 countries have a top rate of 10 per cent or lower.

Some 13 countries have no income tax at all, all but two of which reside in the Caribbean and Middle East.

The map below shows the best places in the world to live if you want to pay little or no income tax. It is based on figures from KMPG, which show the top rate of individual income tax rates.

Sweden, Japan and Denmark have the highest rates of income tax in the world, according to figures from KPMG, at 57.2, 56 and 55.9 per cent respectively.

It is important to note that an income tax top rate of 50 per cent does not necessarily mean that you will be giving half of your money to the tax man. As in the UK, the highest rate of income tax only kicks in after a certain threshold, after which any income above that amount only will be taxed at that rate.

A further seven countries have a higher rate of income tax at over 50 per cent.

More than half of the countries in the KPMG data have a top rate of income tax of between 20 and 40 per cent, with 79 of the 150 countries falling into this bracket.

Uruguay, Iceland and Armenia have hiked the top rate of income tax the most between 2003 and 2019, at 36, 20.4 and 16 percentage points respectively.

Uruguay's income tax top rate has shifted from 0 to 36 per cent across this timeframe, while Iceland's has increased from 25.8 to 46.2 per cent, and Armenia's from 20 to 36 per cent.

Eastern European countries are at the top of the list when it comes to those who have cut income tax top rates the most over the last 15 years, with Romania dropping 30 (40 to 10 per cent), Hungary falling 25 (40 to 15 per cent) and Guatemala cutting by 24 percentage points (31 to seven per cent).

The countries which have zero income tax

According to the figures from KPMG on 150 countries, 13 have individual income tax rate of zero:

• Anguilla

• Antigua and Barbuda

• Bahamas

• Bahrain

• Bermuda

• Brunei Darussalam

• Cayman Islands

• Kuwait

• Oman

• Qatar

• Saint Kitts and Nevis

• Saudi Arabia

• United Arab Emirates

The global average for the top rate of income tax stands at just under a third in 2019, at 31.2 per cent.

While this figure has fluctuated year-on-year, it marks a general downward trend over 15 years. In 2003, when the KPMG data starts, it stood at 34.2 per cent.

Asia has the lowest average income tax of any of the world's regions in 2019, at 28 per cent. This compares to North America, which had the highest rate at 35 per cent.

Europe and Oceania are the continents that have slashed the top rate of income tax the most between 2003 and 2019, according to the figures.

On average, income tax is down 7.6 percentage points, from 41 to 33.4 per cent, in Oceania. Likewise, European nations have seen the top rate of income tax fall from 38.7 to 31.9 per cent, marking a drop of 6.8 percentage points.

North America and Africa, on the other hand, are the only two regions to have hiked income tax by more than one percentage point since 2013, at 3 and 2.6 per cent respectively.