How the numbers are calculated
Total = corporate income tax + dividend tax × (1 − corporate rate): the company pays tax on its profit, distributes the rest, and the owner - a resident individual - pays dividend tax on what arrives. The table uses standard regimes and the top statutory dividend band; small-company rates and special regimes appear in the notes and the list below. Estonia, Latvia and Malta do not fit the classical pattern, so their rows state what actually happens there.
| Country | Corporate tax | Dividend tax | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇲🇹 Malta | ~5% effective (35% less the 6/7 refund) | 0% - full imputation | ~5% |
| 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 10% | 5% | 14.5% |
| 🇨🇾 Cyprus | 15% | 5% SDC (non-domiciled: 0%) | 19.3% (non-domiciled: 15%) |
| 🇱🇻 Latvia | 20% at distribution | 0% - taxed at company level | 20% |
| 🇪🇪 Estonia | 22% at distribution | 0% - taxed at company level | 22% |
| 🇭🇺 Hungary | 9% | 15% + 13% social (capped) | ≈22.7% |
| 🇬🇷 Greece | 22% | 5% | 25.9% |
| 🇸🇰 Slovakia | 21% | 7% | 26.5% |
| 🇭🇷 Croatia | 18% | 12% | 27.8% |
| 🇷🇴 Romania | 16% | 16% | 29.4% |
| 🇱🇹 Lithuania | 17% | 15% | 29.5% |
| 🇨🇿 Czechia | 21% | 15% | 32.9% |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 19% | 19% | 34.4% |
| 🇺🇸 United States | 21% federal | 0–23.8% (qualified) | 21–39.8% + state taxes |
| 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | ≈23.9% (Luxembourg City) | Half the dividend at progressive rates | ≈41% |
| 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 22% | 25% | 41.5% |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 19% | 28% | 41.7% |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | 20% | ≈25.5–28.9% effective | ≈40–43% |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 24% + 3.9% IRAP | 26% | 43.8% (46.7% incl. IRAP) |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 23% | 27.5% | 44.2% |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | 20.6% | 30% (3:12 allowance: 20%) | 44.4% (36.5% under 3:12) |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 25% (20% on the first €100,000) | 30% (VVPRbis: 15%) | 47.5% |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | 25% | 19–30% | 39.3–47.5% |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 12.5% | 20% / 40% marginal + USC | ≈48% and up |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | ≈30% incl. trade tax | 26.375% | ≈48.5% |
| 🇫🇷 France | 25% | 31.4% flat tax (PFU) | 48.6% |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 19% / 25.8% | 24.5% / 31% (Box 2) | 38.8–48.8% |
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 25% (19% small profits) | 10.75–39.35% | 33.1–54.5% |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | 22% | 27% / 42% | 43.1–54.8% |
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
Every rate above is documented, with links to the underlying law, on the country profile - the sources below cover the rows quoted most often.
Three clusters
Three patterns explain most of the table. Distribution-based systems (Estonia, Latvia) charge nothing until profit leaves the company and nothing extra when it reaches the owner. In the low flat-rate countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Romania) both layers are small. Classical systems in the west and north stack a full corporate tax and a full personal capital-income tax - which is how Germany, France, the UK and Denmark all end up near or above 50%.
Malta is its own category: the statutory rate is the EU’s highest at 35%, but the shareholder refund of 6/7 of the tax on distributed trading profit brings the effective burden to about 5%, the lowest in this table.[1][2]
The small-company picture
For an owner-managed company the standard rates are often not the ones that matter. The best totals come from small-company regimes:
- Lithuania, start-up relief: 0% corporate tax for the first two years + 15% dividends = 15% total (income ≤ €300,000, individual shareholders).
- Slovakia, revenue up to €100,000: 10% + 7% = 16.3% total.
- Romania, micro-enterprise: 1% of turnover + 16% dividends - under 20% total for a high-margin business (turnover ≤ €100,000, at least one employee).
- Croatia, revenue up to €1m: 10% + 12% = 20.8% total.
- Lithuania, small companies: 7% + 15% = 21.0% total.
- Poland, small taxpayers: 9% + 19% = 26.3% total.
- UK, small profits with a basic-rate owner: 19% + 10.75% = 27.7% total.[10][11][14][15]
What the ranking hides
Dividend taxes are often progressive, so the table shows the top band: a UK basic-rate taxpayer pays 10.75%, not 39.35%, and Denmark taxes the first DKK 79,400 a year at 27%, not 42%. Several countries also leave the first slice of dividends untaxed or taxed at a lower band.[15][17]
Some costs sit outside the table: Hungary adds a 13% social contribution on dividends up to an annual cap and a local business tax of up to 2% of revenue; Romania can add a health contribution; the US and German figures depend on state and municipal rates. The table also assumes the owner lives where the company is - a foreign owner pays the home country’s dividend tax instead, subject to withholding taxes and treaties.[9][12]
常见问题
Which country has the lowest total tax on distributed company profit?
Malta, at about 5% after the 6/7 shareholder refund. Among countries without refund machinery, Bulgaria is lowest: 10% corporate tax plus 5% dividend tax - 14.5% in total.
Is Estonia’s 0% corporate tax really 0%?
Only while profit stays in the company. Distribution is taxed at 22% of the gross amount (about 28% of the net paid out), with no further tax at the shareholder.
Why not just compare corporate tax rates?
Because the owner pays twice. Ireland’s 12.5% looks like one of Europe’s lowest until dividends are taxed at marginal income-tax rates, taking the total near 48% - more than three times Bulgaria’s 14.5%.
跨境结果取决于税务居民身份、受控外国企业规则和真实的经济实质 - 纸面架构是远远不够的。请参见下方的免责声明。
来源
本文引用的编号参考资料。法律链接至官方注册机构中的整合文本。
- 《所得税法》（第 123 章）
- 企业税与退税 - 指南
- 企业所得税法 (ЗКПО)
- 所得税法 (N.118(I)/2002)
- 国防特别贡献法
- 企业所得税法 (Uzņēmumu ienākuma nodokļa likums)
- 《所得税法》(Tulumaksuseadus)，英文综合文本
- 企业税法（1996. évi LXXXI. törvény）
- 《企业所得税法》（Pelno mokesčio įstatymas），综合文本
- 《个人所得税法》（Gyventojų pajamų mokesčio įstatymas），综合文本
- 德国企业税收
- 《所得税法》(Einkommensteuergesetz, EStG)
- 2010 年公司税法
- PAYE、国民保险与股息
- 企业所得税法 (Selskabsskatteloven)
- 所得税税率与薪酬
- 《美国法典》第26卷第11条 - 对公司征收的税款
- 主题 404 - 股息