Paris, 21/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - Tax pressure on households is coming down, according to the annual OECD report on income tax to be published in April. "As one would expect, households with higher incomes generally pay a higher proportion of their income in tax, and households with children typically pay less than those without", the OECD notes in a press release. Thus, in Germany, Luxembourg, Hungary, Iceland and Luxembourg, the rate of taxation of a couple with a child may be 20 points below the rate of taxation of a single person. This gap is ten points lower in Greece (where households are taxed more), Finland, Sweden, Spain and Poland. Among the OECD-member European countries, the tax burden on a single person with income equal to an average worker ranges from 16.5% in Portugal, Ireland and Greece to 41.2% in Germany and 43.1% in Denmark. For married couples with two children, the tax burden is -3.2% in Iceland, -0.8% in Ireland and 0.1% in Luxembourg (due to the tax credits or family allowances that exceed the amount of tax to be paid). The tax burden is also low in the Czech Republic (3.7%) and Slovakia (3.1%), but far more in Finland (23.2%), Poland (25%) and Denmark (30.5%). (Part of the report is available at: http: //http://www.oecd.org/pdf/M00039000/M00039061.pdf ).