I did not forget 25% social security. I listed taxes for the employee (as stated in my message).

If we look at total taxes and include taxes paid by the employer (fair point), your figures are still wrong, as these 3 countries still set a total tax burden inferior to 50%, far from the 70% you quote.

There is no VAT on wages/payroll, either in the UK or the EU (1)

The figures I quote include regional taxes in Germany and Spain which have them.

Taxes (incl. pension + unemployment + health insurance and other social contributions) on 200K euros annual gross salary, for a single, no-dependents employee (the most unfavourable situation)

Spain (2):

   Taxes [employee]: 81,915 EUR [40.96% of 200K EUR]

   Taxes [employer]: 15,596 EUR [45.13% of 215K EUR]

       ** the page you source is wrong for salaries over 55K EUR, see explanation at the bottom (3)

France (4):

   Taxes [employee]: 87,866 EUR [43.94% of 200K EUR]

   Taxes [employer]: 24,119 EUR [49.97% of 224K EUR]

Germany (5):

   Taxes [employee]: 86,439.33 EUR [43.22% of 200K EUR]

   Taxes [employer]: 15,078 EUR [47.20% of 215K EUR]

UK (6) [200K EUR = 172K GBP]:

   Taxes [employee]: 70,185 GBP [40.90% of 172K GBP]

   Taxes [employer]: 22,425 GBP [47.73% of 194K GBP]

(1) https://goselfemployed.co/is-there-vat-on-payroll/

    https://www.quora.com/Do-you-have-to-pay-VAT-on-an-employee-s-salary

(2) https://cincodias.elpais.com/herramientas/calculadora-irpf/

    https://es.talent.com/tax-calculator?salary=200000&from=year&region=Comunidad+de+Madrid

(3) In Spain, social insurance taxes (contingencias comunes) are calculated as 28.3% of 1.6K (min) to 4.5K (max) mensual income. Anything over that does not compute for that calculation. So the employer can at most pay 1080 EUR/mo (23.6%) and the employee 211 EUR (4.7%) a month as opposed to the 4K the page you source mentions

    https://loentiendo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/bases-minima-maxima-cotizacion-seguridad-social-general-2023.png

    https://loentiendo.com/cotizacion-contingencias-comunes/

(4) https://www.urssaf.fr/portail/home/utile-et-pratique/estimat...

(5) https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/gehalt/gross_net_calcu...

    https://de.icalculator.com/employment-cost-calculator.html

(6) https://www.uktaxcalculators.co.uk/

(edited for clearer language)