Yeah. Start a BV (privately owned company) here and the tax calculation is similar, if not worse, in complexity and you get to hand over ~40% of your money... in a country with vastly higher CoL

It should be noted that for Europeans other alternatives exist, as you can freely shop any EU country to incorporate a business. Many of my tech friends have set a company in Estonia for tax planning once they have hit a certain revenue (and 0% corporate income tax).

You will still need to pay taxes once you take any money out of that company; whether it's payroll tax or capital gains tax. And there's also health insurance and pensions insurance.