We really need to make it so everybody pays some level of income tax. A large proportion of the population pay practically none.
And this isn’t me giving out about high taxes for high earners or anything like that, it’s just common sense; any disruption to the high earners would have devastating consequences for all.
People complain but our income tax system is very progressive. It would however be nice if he could push the threshold for the upper rate higher. The average salary is about €45k but if you’re a single person, you hit the upper threshold at €42k.
And SF want them to pay more lol
Rip off
While the top earners may feel having so much of their earnings taken from them is unfair, this progressive tax system is why Ireland is leading the pack when it comes to public infrastructure, with modern transport systems, cutting edge healthcare provisions, and an abundant social housing supply to ensure no resident goes without shelter.
I don’t think tax is our countries problem given our 8 bil budget surplus. Just a gross mis management of the state run agencies.
Quite a sign that the tax base here is quite narrow.
The top 10% in Ireland have half the wealth in Ireland so this is absolutely fine.
What is considered a high earner now, the 100K has been used for quite a while, is that still the case with inflation and the cost of living increases?
You are all very welcome!
Great, now let’s go after the 0.01%, there’s billionaires hiding out here paying jack shit
Your take away from this should be just how much the top earners actually have.
The difference between wealth and income is kind of important to note here. You could have someone with a 50MM trust paying themselves 40K a year as regular income and they would still be on the lower rate. The people who are actually wealthy don’t have anywhere near the same level of tax input as those who work high income jobs. And all this at a time of rapid asset value inflation and where the traditional store of wealth for most people in property is getting further and further out of reach.
It’s funny how headlines such as this distract and gloss over the reality what and where wealth actually is. If we’re to be outraged that lower income earners aren’t contributing as much to the tax take as the higher bands, then shouldn’t we also be just as concerned about wealthier people who don’t either.
Looking at the past twenty years or so this seems to be a recurring economic trend. Back in 2006 we were deriving 20% of our tax revenue from the construction industry. Now, we’re in a position where 15% of our tax take is derived from just seven MNCs.
The truth is, (and this is something a lot of Irish people really struggle to grasp, including many on this sub) if we want to sustainably fund a more generous welfare state, we’re gonna have to broaden the tax based and substantially increase taxes on low/middle earners.
Top 1% has 25% of the money, the rest would pay more tax if they had a fair go of the money.
I have no issue with paying tax. I would just like it if people who need it can get basic stuff like houses or basic healthcare.
I know at least 3 different families living in social housing, who are earning more than me. All are very successful business owners. It makes me crazy that I pay 40% on my 100k income that goes and feeds these ppl, who are not even remotely struggling.
I’m all for taxation; but the government needs to sort out the dispensary capabilities. It feels almost like whoever can scam the system should do it because the government is incapable of dealing with it.
As the top ten percent have more than half the wealth in Ireland, this doesn’t seem unreasonable.
I’m probably in this bracket and honestly I’m fine with it. I want a country with great public services. It’s a huge benefit to me. Not just when I use them but in building up a stronger community where I’m safer and with have more opportunities.
Give you an example, when education isn’t funded properly there are fewer people to hire for high paying jobs so fewer companies come to ireland, if I want to start my own company, there are fewer people to hire, fewer to hire me if I want to work for someone else. If I get sick, there are fewer doctors and they are more expensive.
If schools are underfunded to give me a tax cut, some young fella doesn’t get through to the leaving cert and doesn’t get addiction services and my car gets stolen.
Both rather extreme examples but basically tax is the price you pay for living in a nice place that is safe and prosperous.
Now if they could just figure out how to spend the money properly and not get fleeced every time the state needs to put two bricks together that would just be swell. I wouldn’t trust fine gael to spend their communion money wisely
Still no one thinks about fixing the issue. Every year the government waste money on welfare instead of seriously reducing taxation
The issue for me isn’t the progressive nature of our tax system that sees someone on €150k paying 52% on a significant portion of that. The issue is that we have an exceptionally narrow tax base – approaching 40% of earners pay no income tax, and “universal” social charge is also far from universal.
Irish people on lower incomes pay a lot less tax than in, say, Germany. What then happens is there’s a crash and governments have to go in hard and gut these people.
The same can be said for corporate taxes, though we have less control there – with a majority of taxes coming from ten companies.
We need a broader tax system, while it’s apparent that people earning >€100k are doing their bit.
Every time I see about how much money the government is making I always wonder where it goes. Nothing is ever going to change in this country without upsetting the people employed in public jobs, and that’s never going to happen.
For me, I always think of that man who was employed by the government to bring the tech in the HSE up to speed and cut down on paperwork/make information more readily available to the relevant people.
He resigned and said it was hopeless because of the resistance to change he was met with inside the HSE. So nothing was changed. Heads should be rolling for that sort of thing.
I’m in that bracket and remote worker / self-employed on top. I can’t wait until I have a lump sum to get me a mortgage somewhere in South Europe and I am gone. I pay too much taxes for what I get in return. There is no safety net. When I was employed and got sacked, I got 1300/month in social payments – that is not enough to even cover my rent. And if you think that this is bad, when I got sacked when I was self employed I had to fill out so many forms and answer questions like “hey we see 10 euros you transferred to Binance, do you have lots of crypto?” that I gave up. As self employed you have even less support from the government, yet you pay the same tax. It’s ridiculous.
Public service is a sham, so is the healthcare system. The car insurance is a rip off and the road tax is just a robbery, even compared to UK. All of the above demotivates me so much.
I am not against paying my fair share if I see it’s spent well. But the share isn’t fair nor am I getting anything for it. And in the end I can count on a flat pension despite all taxes paid. In other countries like in Germany, when you get sacked, you get ±60% of your salary for 12 months from the government. And if you pay more taxes your pension will be higher.
> the significant concentration risk” present in the public finances.
They won’t change anything. They will tax the golden goose until it dies.
The whole eat the rich mentality of Ireland is what is making me leave. Can’t even get wealthy on this island, and even when you pay almost half your salary to tax, you get a 4 year waiting list for a doctor, shite public transport, crime and shit infrastructure.
These top earners are the landlords that own €10 million+ of property each in Ireland and abroad, and just collect the rent from their property managers so they’re not doing anything for the money.
They’re really just leeching rent off hard working businesses and workers looking for somewhere to live.
It’s interesting to read so many bootlickers on here, thinking that they are in the same boat because they earn €80k. You are probably working hard for your money. High taxes for the actual rich benefit us all.
I always find figures like this at best useless and at worst deliberately misleading. How much are these 7.7% of earners earning? If they’re making around half the money then paying half of the tax sounds about right.
30 comments
But why aren’t they paying fair share
That’s deeply worrying.
We really need to make it so everybody pays some level of income tax. A large proportion of the population pay practically none.
And this isn’t me giving out about high taxes for high earners or anything like that, it’s just common sense; any disruption to the high earners would have devastating consequences for all.
People complain but our income tax system is very progressive. It would however be nice if he could push the threshold for the upper rate higher. The average salary is about €45k but if you’re a single person, you hit the upper threshold at €42k.
And SF want them to pay more lol
Rip off
While the top earners may feel having so much of their earnings taken from them is unfair, this progressive tax system is why Ireland is leading the pack when it comes to public infrastructure, with modern transport systems, cutting edge healthcare provisions, and an abundant social housing supply to ensure no resident goes without shelter.
I don’t think tax is our countries problem given our 8 bil budget surplus. Just a gross mis management of the state run agencies.
Quite a sign that the tax base here is quite narrow.
The top 10% in Ireland have half the wealth in Ireland so this is absolutely fine.
What is considered a high earner now, the 100K has been used for quite a while, is that still the case with inflation and the cost of living increases?
You are all very welcome!
Great, now let’s go after the 0.01%, there’s billionaires hiding out here paying jack shit
Your take away from this should be just how much the top earners actually have.
The difference between wealth and income is kind of important to note here. You could have someone with a 50MM trust paying themselves 40K a year as regular income and they would still be on the lower rate. The people who are actually wealthy don’t have anywhere near the same level of tax input as those who work high income jobs. And all this at a time of rapid asset value inflation and where the traditional store of wealth for most people in property is getting further and further out of reach.
It’s funny how headlines such as this distract and gloss over the reality what and where wealth actually is. If we’re to be outraged that lower income earners aren’t contributing as much to the tax take as the higher bands, then shouldn’t we also be just as concerned about wealthier people who don’t either.
Looking at the past twenty years or so this seems to be a recurring economic trend. Back in 2006 we were deriving 20% of our tax revenue from the construction industry. Now, we’re in a position where 15% of our tax take is derived from just seven MNCs.
The truth is, (and this is something a lot of Irish people really struggle to grasp, including many on this sub) if we want to sustainably fund a more generous welfare state, we’re gonna have to broaden the tax based and substantially increase taxes on low/middle earners.
Top 1% has 25% of the money, the rest would pay more tax if they had a fair go of the money.
I have no issue with paying tax. I would just like it if people who need it can get basic stuff like houses or basic healthcare.
I know at least 3 different families living in social housing, who are earning more than me. All are very successful business owners. It makes me crazy that I pay 40% on my 100k income that goes and feeds these ppl, who are not even remotely struggling.
I’m all for taxation; but the government needs to sort out the dispensary capabilities. It feels almost like whoever can scam the system should do it because the government is incapable of dealing with it.
As the top ten percent have more than half the wealth in Ireland, this doesn’t seem unreasonable.
I’m probably in this bracket and honestly I’m fine with it. I want a country with great public services. It’s a huge benefit to me. Not just when I use them but in building up a stronger community where I’m safer and with have more opportunities.
Give you an example, when education isn’t funded properly there are fewer people to hire for high paying jobs so fewer companies come to ireland, if I want to start my own company, there are fewer people to hire, fewer to hire me if I want to work for someone else. If I get sick, there are fewer doctors and they are more expensive.
If schools are underfunded to give me a tax cut, some young fella doesn’t get through to the leaving cert and doesn’t get addiction services and my car gets stolen.
Both rather extreme examples but basically tax is the price you pay for living in a nice place that is safe and prosperous.
Now if they could just figure out how to spend the money properly and not get fleeced every time the state needs to put two bricks together that would just be swell. I wouldn’t trust fine gael to spend their communion money wisely
Still no one thinks about fixing the issue. Every year the government waste money on welfare instead of seriously reducing taxation
The issue for me isn’t the progressive nature of our tax system that sees someone on €150k paying 52% on a significant portion of that. The issue is that we have an exceptionally narrow tax base – approaching 40% of earners pay no income tax, and “universal” social charge is also far from universal.
Irish people on lower incomes pay a lot less tax than in, say, Germany. What then happens is there’s a crash and governments have to go in hard and gut these people.
The same can be said for corporate taxes, though we have less control there – with a majority of taxes coming from ten companies.
We need a broader tax system, while it’s apparent that people earning >€100k are doing their bit.
Every time I see about how much money the government is making I always wonder where it goes. Nothing is ever going to change in this country without upsetting the people employed in public jobs, and that’s never going to happen.
For me, I always think of that man who was employed by the government to bring the tech in the HSE up to speed and cut down on paperwork/make information more readily available to the relevant people.
He resigned and said it was hopeless because of the resistance to change he was met with inside the HSE. So nothing was changed. Heads should be rolling for that sort of thing.
https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2023/01/16/hses-head-of-digital-innovation-resigns-citing-frustrations/
Thank you?
I’m in that bracket and remote worker / self-employed on top. I can’t wait until I have a lump sum to get me a mortgage somewhere in South Europe and I am gone. I pay too much taxes for what I get in return. There is no safety net. When I was employed and got sacked, I got 1300/month in social payments – that is not enough to even cover my rent. And if you think that this is bad, when I got sacked when I was self employed I had to fill out so many forms and answer questions like “hey we see 10 euros you transferred to Binance, do you have lots of crypto?” that I gave up. As self employed you have even less support from the government, yet you pay the same tax. It’s ridiculous.
Public service is a sham, so is the healthcare system. The car insurance is a rip off and the road tax is just a robbery, even compared to UK. All of the above demotivates me so much.
I am not against paying my fair share if I see it’s spent well. But the share isn’t fair nor am I getting anything for it. And in the end I can count on a flat pension despite all taxes paid. In other countries like in Germany, when you get sacked, you get ±60% of your salary for 12 months from the government. And if you pay more taxes your pension will be higher.
> the significant concentration risk” present in the public finances.
They won’t change anything. They will tax the golden goose until it dies.
The whole eat the rich mentality of Ireland is what is making me leave. Can’t even get wealthy on this island, and even when you pay almost half your salary to tax, you get a 4 year waiting list for a doctor, shite public transport, crime and shit infrastructure.
These top earners are the landlords that own €10 million+ of property each in Ireland and abroad, and just collect the rent from their property managers so they’re not doing anything for the money.
They’re really just leeching rent off hard working businesses and workers looking for somewhere to live.
It’s interesting to read so many bootlickers on here, thinking that they are in the same boat because they earn €80k. You are probably working hard for your money. High taxes for the actual rich benefit us all.
I always find figures like this at best useless and at worst deliberately misleading. How much are these 7.7% of earners earning? If they’re making around half the money then paying half of the tax sounds about right.