The OECD tax policy database is a free, standardized collection of interlinked datasets that lets you compare how countries raise revenue, what rates they set, and what the resulting burden looks like on workers, companies, and consumers. It is maintained by the OECD, covers 141 economies through its broadest component, and is available through a web interface called the Data Explorer as well as a developer API.1OECD. Global Revenue Statistics Database
There is no single monolithic file. The OECD runs several databases organized by tax type, each with its own tables and methodology, and they share a common classification system so that figures from one country line up cleanly against another.
What the Database Actually Contains
The Global Revenue Statistics Database
This is the broadest component. It provides harmonized tax revenue data for 141 economies from 1990 onward, covering 63 distinct tax types at the national, sub-national, and social security fund levels.1OECD. Global Revenue Statistics Database It integrates data from the OECD’s regional revenue publications for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific, which is what pushes coverage past the 38 OECD members. If you want to compare how much a country actually collects and from which sources, this is the entry point.
Corporate Tax Statistics
Now in its seventh edition, this database goes deeper on corporate income tax. It contains statutory rates for all jurisdictions in the Inclusive Framework from 2000 through 2025, effective corporate tax rates for 102 jurisdictions from 2017 through 2024, and withholding tax rate data spanning 146 jurisdictions.2OECD. Corporate Tax Statistics 2025 It also links to country-by-country reporting data from the OECD’s work on base erosion and profit shifting, which is why transfer pricing and international tax planners rely on it.
Personal Income Tax Rates
Central government personal income tax rates and thresholds sit in Table I.1, which reports brackets for a single person earning the average wage.3OECD. OECD Personal Income Tax on Wage Income Explanatory Annex 2026 Sub-national rates are tracked separately, so the combined figure reflects the total income tax load a worker actually faces rather than just the headline national number.
Consumption Taxes
VAT and GST data cover standard rates, which range from 5% to 27% across OECD countries, along with the reduced rates many countries apply to essentials such as food, medicine, and children’s clothing.4OECD. Consumption Tax Trends
Property, Payroll, and Social Security
Property taxes accounted for 5.1% of total OECD tax revenues in 2023, with wide variation between members that rely on them for local funding and those that barely use them. Social security contributions are tracked separately from general tax revenue because they fund specific programs like pensions, disability insurance, and healthcare, but the OECD treats them as taxes when paid to the general government.5OECD. Revenue Statistics 2025 For labor cost comparisons these often matter more than the headline income tax rate.
Environmental and Carbon Pricing
Environmental taxes are broken out by category: energy products, motor vehicles and transport, measured emissions to air and water, ozone-depleting substances, waste, and the management of water, land, and biodiversity.6OECD. Environmental Tax A separate Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation Database measures the Effective Carbon Rate in euros per tonne of CO₂ equivalent, combining emissions trading systems, carbon taxes, and fuel excise taxes across 79 countries that account for 82% of global greenhouse gas emissions.7OECD. Effective Carbon Rates
R&D Tax Incentives
The database splits R&D incentives into expenditure-based support (reducing the cost of doing research) and income-based regimes (reducing tax on income the research generates, such as patent income). Expenditure-based support is offered by 33 of 38 OECD members in 2024, compared with 21 countries offering income-based regimes. Effective average tax rates for expenditure-based incentives across 51 jurisdictions averaged 14.2% in 2024, while income-based incentives averaged 12.5%.8OECD. Corporate Tax Statistics – Tax Incentives for Research and Development
The Metrics You Will Actually Compare
Tax-to-GDP Ratio
Statutory rates tell you what the law says. The tax-to-GDP ratio tells you what actually happens. It divides total tax revenue by gross domestic product, showing how large the government’s take is relative to the economy. The OECD average was 34.1% in 2024, up 0.3 percentage points from the prior year and the highest recorded for the 38 members. Denmark led at 45.2%, France came in at 43.5%, Austria at 43.4%, and Mexico had the lowest ratio at 18.3%.9OECD. Revenue Statistics 2025 – Tax Revenue Trends 1965-2024
A gap that wide requires context. A low ratio does not necessarily mean low taxes on the people who do pay. It can reflect a narrow tax base, a large informal economy, or heavy reliance on non-tax revenue such as oil royalties.
The Tax Wedge
The tax wedge measures the gap between what an employer pays to have a worker and what that worker takes home. The OECD calculates it by adding personal income taxes, employee and employer social security contributions, and any payroll taxes, then subtracting cash benefits, expressed as a percentage of total labor costs.10OECD. Tax Wedge For a single worker earning the average wage with no children, the OECD average was 35.1% in 2025.11OECD. Taxing Wages 2026
Household composition matters. The Taxing Wages report analyzes eight household types, including single parents, one-earner and two-earner couples, and families with and without children. For a single parent of two children earning 67% of the average wage, the average wedge was 16.3% in 2025. For a one-earner couple with two children at the average wage, it was 26.2%.12OECD. Taxing Wages Comparing countries on the single-worker benchmark alone can mislead if child benefits and family-targeted relief are what you are trying to evaluate.
Effective Rates Versus Statutory Rates
A country might post a 25% statutory corporate rate but collect revenue equivalent to an effective rate of 15% once deductions, credits, accelerated depreciation, and special zones are factored in. The Corporate Tax Statistics database publishes both, and the gap between them is often more informative than either number alone because it shows how aggressively a jurisdiction uses its tax code to attract investment or protect specific industries.2OECD. Corporate Tax Statistics 2025
How to Pull the Data
The Data Explorer
The OECD Data Explorer is the primary web interface. Choose a dataset first, since the databases are organized by tax type and reporting frequency. Enter through Global Revenue Statistics for broad revenue comparisons, or through the Corporate Income Tax Rates Database for statutory rate lookups.13OECD. Corporate Income Tax Rates Database From there, filter by country, time period, and variable. OECD member corporate revenue data reaches back to 1965, so narrowing the date range keeps a query focused on the reform period you actually care about.2OECD. Corporate Tax Statistics 2025
Results appear as a dynamic table you can pivot directly in the browser. Countries on one axis and years on the other is the standard arrangement for tracking a single rate over time across jurisdictions. Chart views are available for spotting trends and outliers. Export options include Excel, CSV, and XML. Excel suits anyone charting or running spreadsheet calculations; CSV is better for statistical software and databases.
The API
For repeated queries or automated pipelines, the OECD offers a free API based on the SDMX standard. You can generate the correct query string without reading documentation by using the Data Explorer to select your data and clicking the “Developer API” icon above the table. Responses are available in XML, JSON, and CSV. Ready-made code snippets exist for importing directly into R and Python, which supports reproducible research that refreshes when new data is published. Rate limiting applies, so batch large multi-country pulls during off-peak hours.14OECD. OECD Data via API
Where the Database Stops Being Useful
The database captures what countries report under the OECD’s standardized methodology. Informal economies, unreported revenue, and the practical enforcement gap between what the law says and what gets collected are not visible in the data. Statutory and even effective rates do not indicate how aggressively a country audits, how efficient its tax administration is, or how much revenue is lost to evasion. The OECD flags this when it notes that the tax-to-GDP ratio measures revenue actually collected, not what should theoretically be collected if compliance were perfect.15OECD. Tax Revenue
For serious cross-country work, the OECD data is a starting point. Pair it with country-specific statutory text, administrative guidance, and local professional advice before drawing conclusions that affect real investment or compliance decisions.