Of course they may. They discriminate between residents and non-residents, between those of different personal status - married, single and widowed, those who have children and those who do not, the employed and the self-employed, companies partnerships and sole traders, et seq.
The Murphy Case was taken on constitutional grounds that an unmarried couple living together could not have a tax advantage over a married couple living together.
However, it did not change the principle that tax law can differentiate between single people who are in a marital-type relationship and those who are not.
I can't understand that surcharge. If you take the risk to run your own business and do well, you should be rewarded, not penalised. But if I work in a large company with a secure job, I pay less tax than someone with no guarantees or job security.
I always look at the earned income benefit as better than nothing. It wasn't that long ago that there was no allowance. They aren't going to increase it by €700 in one year.
Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)
The surcharge was brought in during one of the earlier crisis budgets. It was a last minute measure, and replaced some other planned measure which was deemed to be politically awkward (can't remember what).
Anyway the civil servants were tasked with plugging gap - quickly - and this was the wheeze they came up with.
They would have raised roughly the same had they increased income tax on public service pensions by 1%.