Keep it, but spend the money on things useful to society, like Housing and Public Transport.
[
Leo Varadkar
@LeoVaradkar
5 years ago, 1000s paid their #1st USC under #fiannafail.
@finegael
will abolish USC over the lifetime of the next Government #ffardfheis
8:46 PM · Jan 16, 2016](https://x.com/LeoVaradkar/status/688462286307086336)
Are we the only EU country that has 3 different forms of income tax? Genuine question.
– Income tax (supposed to be reinvested back into public good)
– Pay Related Social Insurance
– Universal Social Charge
Aren’t they technically all the same thing?
How often does the government introduce a tax that is later abolished?
Thank god for the virulent opposition to the water meters, it would definitely be pushing people over the edge otherwise.
Government need to increase spending, not cut taxes. Fund the HSE, build houses, hire Guards, fix the poor water infrastructure, expand the electric grid Build loads of stuff.
I would rather they keep it, pay down the national debt in the good times, deficit spend in the bad times, Keynesian economics 101.
Nobody ever comments that USC replaced two other taxes. When we talk about abolishing it are we saying we want to revert to these two old taxes?
Can they just keep it and like, I dunno, spend it on stuff we need?
Like if one high-speed rail line or high tech hospital costs a billion to build each, can we not just build five of these pieces of infrastructure per year while we have the surplus? The country would look like the Family Guy ‘Ireland pre-invention of alcohol’ gag after about 10 years.
USC is fine and quite progressive as far as taxes go.
I do think they need to raise the band at which the higher tax kicks in. It’s been too low for a long time. It should theoretically be linked to inflation. Our spending power is being pissed away every year.
Voters want money used for working well funded services and housing
They’ve proven they can’t even spend the surplus on infrastructure and housing so just give it back to us and let us blow it all on hats.
I hate paying income taxes in all their forms, but they’re also rather necessary. We have a narrow enough tax base as it is, and just like pre 2008 we’ve been busily lifting people out of the tax net entirely – 37% of all earners are exempt from income taxes and 35% from USC (see tax strategy group papers with the last budget). Go to Germany etc and you see people on lower incomes paying a lot more tax – less than the well off. But narrowing our tax base even further was not a sensible policy – after 2008 it forced us to suddenly rip income out of peoples hands when things were going from bad to worse.
What I would like to see is indexation of taxation – so bands rise with wage inflation, so in real terms you’re not getting dragged into a higher tax bracket if you just got an inflation matching pay rise. But that’s more technical and less flashy for a minister to announce.
It should only be applied to those on final salary defined benefit pensions.
I’ve a mental idea for the surplus.
We ban or significantly reduce the amount of data centers, office blocks and pharma plants being built, for say, 18 months. Then we task all these builders and other tradesmen, to build massive amounts of social housing around the country.
Just a thought.
Voters want money back. Colour me shocked and but my vote godammit
16 comments
Keep USC but rejig income tax bands.
Keep it, but spend the money on things useful to society, like Housing and Public Transport.
[
Leo Varadkar
@LeoVaradkar
5 years ago, 1000s paid their #1st USC under #fiannafail.
@finegael
will abolish USC over the lifetime of the next Government #ffardfheis
8:46 PM · Jan 16, 2016](https://x.com/LeoVaradkar/status/688462286307086336)
Are we the only EU country that has 3 different forms of income tax? Genuine question.
– Income tax (supposed to be reinvested back into public good)
– Pay Related Social Insurance
– Universal Social Charge
Aren’t they technically all the same thing?
How often does the government introduce a tax that is later abolished?
Thank god for the virulent opposition to the water meters, it would definitely be pushing people over the edge otherwise.
Government need to increase spending, not cut taxes. Fund the HSE, build houses, hire Guards, fix the poor water infrastructure, expand the electric grid Build loads of stuff.
I would rather they keep it, pay down the national debt in the good times, deficit spend in the bad times, Keynesian economics 101.
Nobody ever comments that USC replaced two other taxes. When we talk about abolishing it are we saying we want to revert to these two old taxes?
Can they just keep it and like, I dunno, spend it on stuff we need?
Like if one high-speed rail line or high tech hospital costs a billion to build each, can we not just build five of these pieces of infrastructure per year while we have the surplus? The country would look like the Family Guy ‘Ireland pre-invention of alcohol’ gag after about 10 years.
USC is fine and quite progressive as far as taxes go.
I do think they need to raise the band at which the higher tax kicks in. It’s been too low for a long time. It should theoretically be linked to inflation. Our spending power is being pissed away every year.
Voters want money used for working well funded services and housing
They’ve proven they can’t even spend the surplus on infrastructure and housing so just give it back to us and let us blow it all on hats.
I hate paying income taxes in all their forms, but they’re also rather necessary. We have a narrow enough tax base as it is, and just like pre 2008 we’ve been busily lifting people out of the tax net entirely – 37% of all earners are exempt from income taxes and 35% from USC (see tax strategy group papers with the last budget). Go to Germany etc and you see people on lower incomes paying a lot more tax – less than the well off. But narrowing our tax base even further was not a sensible policy – after 2008 it forced us to suddenly rip income out of peoples hands when things were going from bad to worse.
What I would like to see is indexation of taxation – so bands rise with wage inflation, so in real terms you’re not getting dragged into a higher tax bracket if you just got an inflation matching pay rise. But that’s more technical and less flashy for a minister to announce.
It should only be applied to those on final salary defined benefit pensions.
I’ve a mental idea for the surplus.
We ban or significantly reduce the amount of data centers, office blocks and pharma plants being built, for say, 18 months. Then we task all these builders and other tradesmen, to build massive amounts of social housing around the country.
Just a thought.
Voters want money back. Colour me shocked and but my vote godammit