Interesting (to me, anyway) piece by Stephen Collins in Saturday's Irish Times.
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Excerpt (underlines are my choice)
"The figures on this are quite stark. Just 6 per cent of the workforce earn more than €100,000 a year, yet they contribute 47 per cent of the tax take. The top 1 per cent of earners on €200,000 or over contribute 21 per cent of the total tax take. While people on such large incomes should certainly be asked to pay more in the current national emergency, the exclusion of the bottom 40 per cent of the workforce from the tax net is no longer sustainable.
In this country workers don’t pay any tax, PRSI or the income levy if they earn less than €18,000. By contrast, in Britain all income above €6,860 is subject to income tax at 20 per cent. Most EU countries follow the British example and bring workers into the tax net at a much lower income threshold than in Ireland.
..
Similarly any increase in the basic 20 per cent rate of tax will also provoke outrage but the Government really has no choice in the matter. Every 1 per cent increase in the standard rate will generate an extra €535 million in revenue in a full year, compared to an extra €220 million for every percentage increase in the top rate."
Do Fianna Fail have the political courage to widen the tax net and get more people paying a higher standard rate of tax ? This will infuriate the unions, but, how else can they get a similar amount from the tax base ?
[broken link removed]
Excerpt (underlines are my choice)
"The figures on this are quite stark. Just 6 per cent of the workforce earn more than €100,000 a year, yet they contribute 47 per cent of the tax take. The top 1 per cent of earners on €200,000 or over contribute 21 per cent of the total tax take. While people on such large incomes should certainly be asked to pay more in the current national emergency, the exclusion of the bottom 40 per cent of the workforce from the tax net is no longer sustainable.
In this country workers don’t pay any tax, PRSI or the income levy if they earn less than €18,000. By contrast, in Britain all income above €6,860 is subject to income tax at 20 per cent. Most EU countries follow the British example and bring workers into the tax net at a much lower income threshold than in Ireland.
..
Similarly any increase in the basic 20 per cent rate of tax will also provoke outrage but the Government really has no choice in the matter. Every 1 per cent increase in the standard rate will generate an extra €535 million in revenue in a full year, compared to an extra €220 million for every percentage increase in the top rate."
Do Fianna Fail have the political courage to widen the tax net and get more people paying a higher standard rate of tax ? This will infuriate the unions, but, how else can they get a similar amount from the tax base ?