Government at all levels collected taxes equal to about 26% of the US economy’s total output in 2005. That is less than the tax take in most European countries. Sweden has a tax burden of about 50%, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; Germany has about 36%. Japan has a tax burden roughly equal to that in the US. Federal taxes amounted to 17.5% of GDP, up from a modern low of 16.3% in 2004, but well below the high of nearly 21% in 2000, Wall Street Journal reports.