Because I like data, here are my federal tax rates from 2015-2023. Taxable income and federal tax amounts are not shown due to privacy, but are shown in relative values on the graph.
The 2017 Trump law ended up being a tax hike for us, because we had previously itemized deductions that were either eliminated or reduced in 2018. The COVID child tax credits in 2020 temporarily lowered our taxes to their lowest point, but went up to their highest the next year. The Biden/Harris child care tax expansion in 2021 lowered our taxes back down to what they were before the 2017 tax law.
This is just federal income tax. It does not include state income tax, property tax, or sales taxes.
2019 data (1) comparing federal income tax.
In Belgium, you’d be at 45% to 50% marginal rate for federal income tax.
There would be another 0 to 8% for municipal tax (this depends on the municipality, I assume similar to state taxes?).
Then there’s 20% (employer contribution), and another 13% (employee contribution) for “rsz”, state mandated health insurance.
Sales tax is 21% on most goods, 6% on food.
https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/belgium/individual/other-taxes