Back in October 2022, I traveled to the Faroe Islands to report on their tax authority, called TAKS. Now with America’s tax day in 2025 behind us, I’ve made a video version of the article I wrote about it.
The TAKS system is better even than countries that do your taxes for you, like the Netherlands. It works by routing every normal wage payment through a central government database, which automatically deducts any tax payment owed, and also deposits any relevant welfare benefits. Workers don’t even have to think about it, even if they have more than one job; businesses don’t have to do any payroll processing; the welfare system is centralized and automated; and the Faroese statistics bureau gets a practically real-time look at what is actually happening in the economy.
America—with our bloated, underfunded, hyper-complicated, expensive, and obnoxious tax system—could learn a lot from the Faroes. Watch the video to learn more!
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