Hello hello,
It has been almost for 3 years since I wrote on my blog last time. Time flies but I don't think not so much changed in my life but my mind and my perspective on many aspects of life have changed almost 180 degrees. I think I grew up more and matured more emotionally. Also, I know now what I really want in my career. I admit that I realized it a bit too late in comparison with my peers. Actually, there is a saying in my country that a good accountant's kid becomes a good accountant and a good doctor's kid becomes a good doctor. Doesn't it sound a bit like a caste system? :D Haha I realized this only when i grew up emotionally and matured. My mom was no exception in this regard. She was a medical doctor and general practitioner for her whole life and when I was out fresh from high school, 17, she convinced me to go to medical school in Turkey because my grandma was a pediatrician and my grandpa was a neurosurgeon and my mom was a general practitioner. This is a fact that almost nobody knows about my life that i studied at medical faculty in Ankara, Turkey for 3 months in 2012 and changed my major after 3 months and became blacksheep in my family. I didn't even let her know that i was changing my major to Economics. Shock shock... haha My mom was so so much disappointed in me i still remember. Still she talks now like "what if you only finished your medical study"...
Medical doctors and teachers are the most respected yet least-paid jobs in my country. I know very well from my whole life experience that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system in Mongolia. The government's budget has consisted of money coming from the middle class mostly from doctors' and teachers' pockets and foreign debt. When normal citizens could feel or see barely any improvement in public service, especially public health service and education, the government's expense always exceeds its income, and the government's budget is always in deficit. To compensate for this deficit, the tax rate has been increasing steadily in the last 10 years and the central bank is printing money to compensate ever-growing government expenses. As a result of all of it, inflation is crazy high right now in Mongolia. People's purchasing power has significantly reduced and prices of common goods in Mongolia can be quite similar to prices in the Czech Republic even though salary in Mongolia is almost 2-3 times lower in Mongolia. Can you believe it? I can not believe it.
There is a phenomenon among young people in my country...economic migration is high at this moment. People want to improve their life. Educated ones are getting jobs abroad which are more high-paid and uneducated or ones who have language barriers are getting manual jobs outside Mongolia. Actually, in Mongolia, the funny thing is you can almost see no person who is not college-educated. Whether it is a low-ranked private college located in Mongolia or a high-ranked public or private university in Mongolia or abroad, somehow everyone acquired or is acquiring a college education. I think it is a good and bad thing. It shows 2 things about the education system in Mongolia. One, college is something you can buy with money not with your brain (not all the time, but I saw so many cases like that when I was growing up )and if you have money, you can have a college diploma. It shows how our education system is not going smoothly and is not very qualified. There are a total of 88 higher education institutions 68 public and 20 private. In comparison with our population of 3 million, shouldn't it be more qualified and fewer? for example: the Czech Republic has 10 million of population and yet they have 70 colleges and universities.
Two, Sometimes also I think maybe everyone is getting educated is not bad thing because Mongolia never can become a highly industrialized country like China or S.Korea or Czechia due to the corruption in politics, lack of investment in technology and science and R&D to obtain high tech to have more productive and updated industries, lack of labor force, high cost of trade and transportation due to geographical position, not having enough highly skilled people in certain specific areas, having a huge amount of foreign debt...But i still hope our government can build basic infrastractures based on our natural resources in the future, to get the benefit of it more effectively, not to end up like some African countries in history which were under the colonial regime of some European countries for centuries, being used for its natural resources like Tanzania for its gold, Congo for its copper, Namibia for its Uranium, Botswana for its diamond. I hope our country doesn't end up in the same fate as natural resource-cursed countries.
There is a huge difference between educated and uneducated. Maybe being educated even with a low-ranked private college degree will still have a positive impact on someone's life... it might lead to smarter decisions in an individual's life... ? even if he or she is pushed off the edge by a highly competitive labor market or stay as blue collar employee somewhere somehow or end up being manual labor force somewhere in a developed country, college-educated person can still make better decisions regarding life matters in general. right? I believe so.
Mongolia is a free market and democratic country yet I believe a government's hand is needed at times these days. actually, there is no such country in the world where the government doesn't intervene in the market...
That's why other countries' tax system is very interesting to me which are in better position economically. Specially those countries' tax system and how they spend their tax money is very interesting to me.Anyways, what I want to disucess is not about my personal change. It is about continuing last topic I wrote on my blog which is about taxation system in EU , specially income tax. I am going to show how you can calculate your net salary in Czech Republic.
Do you know how much the minimum salary in Czechia is today in 2024 ?
It is 18900 CZK. It is the amount before income tax. If we assume 1 USD equals 25 CZK at worst, it makes it 662 USD after income tax. With this amount of money, if you are a foreigner and if you don't own your own apartment, I think you can rent a room in the suburban area of Prague with 10000 CZK and buy under-nutritional food for 1 month. That's it. It is not that bad. isn't it? it keeps you alive. The average salary in Czechia is 43000 CZK. The Czech Republic has progressive income tax rates which means anything you earn more than 3 times of average salary from employment, you are subject to 23% of income tax and until this rate, you are subject to 15% of income tax.
Let's calculate the average salary tax:
Example 1: Let's say your salary is 48000 CZK and you don't have children and you are single working person.
your payable tax is 48,000*0.15=7,200
tax credit amount applicable amounting to 2,570 CZK. this is the amount that can be claimed by anyone who has taxable income in the Czech Republic.
7,200-2,570=4,630 CZK tax
social tax is fixed 6.5 % so 48000*0.065=3,120 CZK
health insurance contribution is 4.5 % so 4,8000*0.045=2,160 CZK
so total tax and deduction coming from employee is = 4,620+3,120+2,160=9,900
Net salary is 38,100 CZK.
But your employer is also paying tax for you.
24.8% for social contribution and 9% for insurance = total = 4,8000*0.248 +48,000*0.09= 11,904 czk + 4,320 czk= 16,224 czk your employer's contribution.
Example 2: Working mom with 2 children
Take a working mother of two children with a gross salary of CZK 35,000 per month. In this case, the deposit towards income tax before discounts is 15% of CZK 35,000 = CZK 5,250. However, as a mother of two children, it’s possible to claim:
- A taxpayer’s credit of CZK 2,570.
- Tax discount for the first children: CZK 1,267.
- Tax discount for the second child: CZK 1,860.
The total credits and discounts in this case become CZK 5,250. That is CZK 447 more than the income tax after applying discounts.
Also, the employee must pay from their gross salary:
- 6.5% social tax = CZK 2,275.
- 4.5% health insurance = CZK 1,575.
- This brings net salary after income tax deposits and insurance to CZK 32,027
On top of this, the employer also contributes:
- 24.8% social tax = CZK 8,680.
- 9% health insurance = CZK 3,150.
Example 3:Higher earnings with no children
Take a gross salary of CZK 200,000 per month. In this case, remember that only income up to CZK 131,901 will have a 15% tax rate. The earnings over this amount will have a 23% tax rate. Now, the calculation becomes:
- CZK 200,000 – CZK 131,901 = CZK 68,099 (income over the 15% tax rate)
- CZK 131,901 * 15% = CZK 19,785
- CZK 68,099 * 23% = CZK 15,662
- CZK 19,785 + 15,662 = CZK 35,447 taxable
- CZK 35,447 – 2,570 CZK (credit for the taxpayer) = CZK 32,877 CZK total monthly tax