Where do we sit on that table? Our tax as a percentage of GDP in New Zealand is lower than the UK and slightly higher than Japan, not too different from Japan. The countries that have higher percentages of GDP collected in taxation include countries that we traditionally compare ourselves with, like Canada, most of the European countries that we compare ourselves with, and certainly the Scandinavian countries. All liberal democracies have taxation needed to fund the services that people desire from their Government and vote for them to fund. Health, education, and superannuation are the largest cost centres, justice is obviously also important.