Countries with the Highest VAT Rates 2025

About This Dataset

The countries with the highest standard rate of value-added tax (VAT) or goods-and-services tax in 2025. VAT is a broad consumption tax added to most goods and services, and these headline rates are the standard rate before any reduced rates on essentials such as food and medicine.

✨ AI Insight

Hungary has the world's highest standard VAT rate at 27%, a clear outlier that sits a full percentage point above the next country. Finland is second at 25.5% following a 2024 increase, and then a large cluster of countries share the 25% rate: Croatia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Below them, Iceland and Greece charge 24%, while Poland and Portugal levy 23%. Every country in the top ten is European, reflecting the continent's long-standing reliance on broad consumption taxes to fund large welfare states - the same countries that tend to top government-spending rankings. High VAT rates are often paired with reduced rates on essentials to soften their impact on lower-income households, but the headline rates shown here are among the steepest consumption taxes in the world.

Source: Tax Foundation / national tax authorities

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Hungary leads with 27 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 25 · median: 25.

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Gap in All Time: Hungary is 1.2× larger than Portugal.