The 18 countries with the lowest tax rates in the world

When looking at where to locate themselves, international businesses pay a lot of attention to the tax rates in different countries. Governments also often compete to one-up each other on their business taxes.

The World Economic Forum's recent global competitiveness report uses "total tax rate" as one measure of how competitive a country is, with lower figures being better.

The total tax rate is actually defined by the World Bank. Here's how it works:

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.

So it includes any taxes on labour that fall on the employer, but not ones like income tax that fall on the employee.

Take a look at the countries with the very lowest rates in the world.