Eurostat report: The EU continues to have the highest taxed countries in the world.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The combined effect of taxes and transfers is more progressive than the USA

('transfers' being benefits, both actual money and spending on things like education and health). You can compare the Gini indices for OECD countries before and after taxes and transfers here: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=IDD

You get, for instance - Gini before taxes & transfers, and then after, for 2010 (or 2009 for Japan - most recent year listed):
USA 0.499 0.380
UK 0.523 0.341
Germany 0.492 0.286
France 0.505 0.303
Japan 0.488 0.336

So the pre-tax income distribution in the USA is comparable to many other developed countries, and more equal than the UK; but taxes and transfers make a big difference in evening things up in Germany, pretty big in France, then the UK, then Japan, and then the USA.