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Taxes against the rule of law

A low tax rate is worth little if contracts are hard to enforce. This chart puts the headline corporate tax rate next to how firmly the law holds.

10%20%30% 20406080100 Corporate income tax rate (headline, %) →↑ Rule of law and legal certainty (0-100) France: 36%, 67FranceMalta: 35%, 33MaltaBrazil: 34%, 32BrazilPortugal: 31%, 56Germany: 30%, 79Australia: 30%, 90Mexico: 30%, 22Japan: 30%, 70New Zealand: 28%, 94Italy: 28%, 48South Africa: 27%, 40South Korea: 26%, 64Canada: 26%, 83Netherlands: 26%, 71United States: 26%, 74India: 25%, 23IndiaBelgium: 25%, 69China: 25%, 12ChinaSpain: 25%, 64United Kingdom: 25%, 72Malaysia: 24%, 39Slovakia: 24%, 52Luxembourg: 24%, 74Austria: 23%, 67Israel: 23%, 57Denmark: 22%, 93DenmarkEstonia: 22%, 87EstoniaGreece: 22%, 41Indonesia: 22%, 20Norway: 22%, 84NorwaySlovenia: 22%, 47Czechia: 21%, 69Sweden: 21%, 79Finland: 20%, 89FinlandIceland: 20%, 64Latvia: 20%, 72Taiwan: 20%, 74Switzerland: 20%, 85SwitzerlandPoland: 19%, 54Croatia: 18%, 47Singapore: 17%, 68Hong Kong: 17%, 48Lithuania: 16%, 66Romania: 16%, 50Albania: 15%, 31Serbia: 15%, 23Cyprus: 13%, 48Ireland: 13%, 80Liechtenstein: 13%, 85LiechtensteinBulgaria: 10%, 47North Macedonia: 10%, 32Hungary: 9%, 36United Arab Emirates: 9%, 27
Top left is where companies want to be: moderate tax and strong courts. Rule of law combines V-Dem’s liberal component, Transparency International’s corruption score, the strength of legal rights and B-READY dispute resolution.
Low tax, firm law. Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway sit in the favourable corner. Brazil, China and India combine above-median tax with below-median legal certainty.

Headline rates are only the start: deductions, local business taxes and incentives move the effective burden a lot, which is why the climate score also uses the total tax and contribution rate on profits. For a real case, ask for the tax ruling where you plan to invest.

Sources: national tax authorities and OECD (headline corporate rates 2026), V-Dem v16, Transparency International CPI 2025 (2024 where 2025 is missing), World Bank. Nestlyzer scores each measure 0–100 between the 5th and 95th percentile of the countries it covers. How the method works.