Singapore vs UK taxes!!

A:"Working in London is better den singapore, the pay is like so much better den in singapore. Even interns can expect to earn 2000-3000 pounds a month!"

B:"Yeah, but the taxes here in london are also so much "better". Like freaking 40%. Singapore is only 10%. so you effectively get more money working in singapore than here in london."

A:"True... its because of all the bloody pension schemes and welfare policies. haizz..."

B:"Yeah, singapore's CPF scheme is so much better. Why dun other countries learn from us?..."

This got me thinking. Is the CPF really a money saver compared to the pension scheme?? lets do the maths.

lets assume that your gross income is a value $X.
In singapore, the employer has to put an additional 16% to your CPF account. Increasing your effective income to $1.16X.
On top of that, you put another 20% ($0.20X) into your CPF as well as your 10% ($0.10X) tax. Hence the total amount that you put/pay to the CPF and taxes is $0.16X + $0.20X + $0.10X = $0.46X.
Now that we know your effective income ($1.16X) and the amount the you give to the government, be it in taxes or CPF, is $0.46X, we can now find out the effective payments/taxes to the government is $0.46X / $1.16X = 0.396
So, the total percentage that you give to the government for taxes or CPF is 39.6%
which is pretty much the same as that of the UK!!!
Sure, the CPF money is yours and you can choose to use some of your CPF money before you retire (remember that the money used to buy a flat goes back into a government board called HDB) . But the UK pension scheme payouts is yours too and are so much better than the CPF payouts. And you havent even considered the other benefits of a welfare state like free nation-wide heathcare (even for foreign students like me). So, both retirement schemes and taxations are essentially the same. It only differs in how and when you get your retirement money.

So the next time you think that singapore has a low income tax. Think again. Numbers dun lie. Politicians do.