US tax friendliness score cut as reciprocal tariffs keep expanding

We lowered the United States tax friendliness score from 4.7 to 4.2 on Country To Live. Since April 2025 the White House has layered a broad reciprocal tariff program on top of partner-specific duty changes, and follow-on orders have kept rewriting the rates. For movers, that shows up as higher landed prices on imported goods and a noisier tax-and-duty stack for anyone who buys, ships, or sells across borders from a US address.

This is an editorial score for people comparing countries on our site. It is not tax advice, and it does not mean federal income tax brackets alone drove the cut.

Why we changed the score

• A baseline reciprocal tariff regime is now permanent policy, not a one-week headline. The April 2025 presidential action on reciprocal tariffs declared a national emergency on goods trade deficits and imposed additional ad valorem duties on imports from trading partners, with higher Annex I rates for listed countries.
• The rates keep getting rewritten. Orders such as Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates (July 2025) and later partner-scope changes mean businesses and households face a moving duty schedule, not a settled tariff table.
• Import costs hit everyday budgets. Higher customs duties on consumer goods, parts, and equipment raise the after-tax, after-duty price of many things movers buy in the US, even when their wage tax rate is unchanged.
• Cross-border life gets more paperwork. Expats who ship household goods, run small import-heavy businesses, or buy from Canada, Mexico, Europe, or Asia now need more customs planning than the pre-2025 score assumed.
• We kept the cut to half a point. The US still has deep capital markets and clear federal filing rules for many earners. A 0.5 step flags the tariff drag without rewriting the whole tax story. Other US scores stay put this round.

What the number means on our site

Tax friendliness on Country To Live measures how easy and predictable the tax and duty environment feels for a typical international mover, including income tax load and friction that hits daily spending and small business. A 4.2/10 keeps the US in the lower-middle band and below peers with lighter import-duty noise.

Open the United States country page for the full scorecard, or put the US in our compare tool next to Canada or Germany. Run Canada vs United States if tax and cost trade-offs are your tie-breaker. Browse all country scores to see where this update lands.

Before you plan a move

1. Model goods costs, not only income tax. If you buy cars, electronics, furniture, or imported food often, bake higher duty-driven prices into your US budget.
2. Check customs rules before you ship a household. Reciprocal and partner-specific rates change; verify CBP and broker guidance for your origin country before containers leave the dock.
3. Compare English-speaking peers on tax friction, not salary alone. Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom may score differently on this bar even when US job market numbers look stronger.

We will publish another update if reciprocal rates ease for a sustained period, or if further broad tariff hikes keep stacking on households and small firms.

This note explains our editorial scoring only. It is not tax, legal, or immigration advice.