the UK has a 20% VAT as well. I don't think the person you were replying to was taking that into account. Also, they are probably not taking into account employer NICs which are effectively the same in terms of tax incidence as employee NICs but people incorrectly treat them differently because the employer nominally pays them. But if you think about it for a second, your employer makes two payments to the government one of them is called employee NICs and one of them is called employer NICs and both of them are based on the employee's wage so it is silly to treat them differently. Though, I'm guessing Canada probably has employer payroll taxes as well. Employer NICS can get up to almost 14% so it is a significant tax in the UK.