Here are the 27 countries with the highest levels of tax in the world

Every year, the World Economic Forum releases its Global Competitiveness Report on the state of the world's economies.

The WEF looks at a whole range of data on everything from the quality of the teaching of maths in schools, to the rate of inflation in each country. It then uses the data to compile a picture of virtually every country on earth

One of the indicators they use is a country's tax burden, with higher scores indicating lower competitiveness.

To measure tax they use the World Bank's "total tax rate." Here's what goes into that:

The total amount of taxes is the sum of five different types of taxes and contributions payable after accounting for deductions and exemptions: profit or corporate income tax, social contributions and labor taxes paid by the employer, property taxes, turnover taxes, and other small taxes.

Basically, it's all the taxes levied on businesses, but not those levied on the people who work for them. Business Insider took a look at the countries with total tax rates of more than 50%. Check them out below.

This article is based on a previous post written by Mike Bird