# Revenue Income Distribution Statistics and Pension Contributions



## Sophrosyne (1 Sep 2014)

*“Gross Income *is the income brought under the review of the department before adjustments are made in respect of capital allowances, interest paid, losses, allowable expenses, retirement annuities etc. *but after deduction of superannuation contributions by employees.*

It includes certain income belonging to individuals whose _total _income is below the exemption limits. It does not include certain other income which is not income for tax purposes or is exempt from tax such as profits or gains from stallion fees (pre-August 2008), profits from commercial forestry and certain income from patent royalties, certain investment income arising from personal injuries, child benefit, maternity benefit and unemployment assistance paid by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, certain earnings of writers, composers and artists, bonus or interest paid under Instalment Savings Schemes operated by An Post, interest on certain Government securities, certain foreign pensions which are exempt from tax in the foreign paying country, portion of certain lump sums received by employees on cessation of their employment, statutory redundancy payments and certain military pensions.

*Other income sources which are either not included or not fully included are employee contributions to pension funds (tax deductible),* interest income that does not need to be declared or is not recorded (but from which tax has been deducted), unemployment benefit and disability benefit (non-recording of non-taxable amounts and of amounts taxed by restriction of repayments or indirectly through employers in the PAYE system), and the incomes of certain self-employed persons, including some farmers, as well as some individuals in receipt of pensions, who are not processed annually on tax records because their incomes are below the income tax thresholds.”


Does the second reference to employee contributions mean AVCs?


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## Brendan Burgess (1 Sep 2014)

Hi Soph

I have been questioning this definition as well. This is my summary of their various definitions. 

*“Global income” my term  *
-          Superannuation contributions
-          Employee’s contribution to pension funds 
-          Child benefit 
-          Jobseekers allowance 
-          Artists income ( and other similar income) 
-          Interest from An Post 
  = Gross Income  
-          Capital allowance
-          Interest paid 
-          Losses
-          Expenses 
-          Retirement annuities 
  =Total  income  (Includes taxable Benefits in Kind, dividends etc)
-          Personal reliefs
-          Other deductions 
  [FONT=&quot]= Taxable Income [/FONT]


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## Sophrosyne (1 Sep 2014)

I think “Gross income”, in the context of the Income Distribution Statistics, does not include income, which is either not regarded as income for tax purposes, such as Disability Allowance, Child Benefit, etc; or that is specifically exempted by sections of the TCA 1997.

I assume that this is because Revenue does not always have details of those incomes and/or the number of recipients. Or perhaps it is not interested in non-taxable income.

The income of employees used in these tables appears to be the based on P60 figures, i.e., after deduction of ordinary (payroll) pension contributions.

But it is not clear whether the second reference to employee pension contributions also means payroll pension deductions – in that case why the need to say it twice – or whether it refers instead to AVCs.


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