Surely it's time that some high earners are taxed the same as those on much less pay?

[bobbysands81]

Dave Thomas of the AHCPS is in the Times today stating that "between €300 and €400 million could be generated by closing property incentives and tax reliefs introduced when the construction sector was booming."

He says that "four in five people earning over €500,000 had an effective tax rate of less than 20 per cent, while everyone earning between €250-500,000 used reliefs to ensure they paid less than 20 per cent tax"

Surely it's time to close this loop up?

I'm on a wage of circa 50k, 34% of my total pay goes back to the Govt in income tax and mandatory levies, isn't it time that folks earning a multiple of my wage were treated the same? Surely the people earning these amounts, and paying less % of their wages in tax, should be the first to be hit?

How can the Govt sell tax increases or pay decreases to me when those earning a multiple of what I am are not touched?

Call for tax relief clampdown - The Irish Times - Wed, Nov 04, 2009

[johnfás]

Many of those tax incentives, the extension of which fuelled the bubble and were grossly irresponsible, have been shut down already which makes part of what he says moot.

Personally I think its about time the tax system was equitable which means that very wealthy people will pay more tax but also that those on salaries which currently result in their paying of no tax, also pay more tax.

Tax system isn't going to sort out the fiscal crisis we're in though, while reform should be implemented, many such reforms will not deliver the required amounts of money for a number of years. It doesn't alleviate the need for cuts at the present moment.

Alot of this is like talking about preventative medicine while half way through open heart surgery. The former is irrelevant if you don't survive the latter, if that is the situation that you find yourself in.

[Hal]

Dave Thomas of the AHCPS is in the Times today stating that "between €300 and €400 million could be generated by closing property incentives and tax reliefs introduced when the construction sector was booming."

He says that "four in five people earning over €500,000 had an effective tax rate of less than 20 per cent, while everyone earning between €250-500,000 used reliefs to ensure they paid less than 20 per cent tax"

Surely it's time to close this loop up?

I'm on a wage of circa 50k, 34% of my total pay goes back to the Govt in income tax and mandatory levies, isn't it time that folks earning a multiple of my wage were treated the same? Surely the people earning these amounts, and paying less % of their wages in tax, should be the first to be hit?

How can the Govt sell tax increases or pay decreases to me when those earning a multiple of what I am are not touched?

Call for tax relief clampdown - The Irish Times - Wed, Nov 04, 2009

All those construction tax reliefs are closed down, most of them 2 years ago and the last of them in April. You'd expect someone like Dave Thomas to know this.

[feargach]

Noooooo! If the rich have to pay almost as much of their income as a toilet cleaner, they will take their productive genius to such low-tax havens as France and the UK!

[Vega1447]

Yes. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys we are told.

Unfortunately we have been paying gold bars and still getting monkeys...

[zakalwe1]

bobby,

if you want to pay 20% tax then leave the public sector....they took massive risks at the start of their career and could have ended up bankrupt...did you take the same risk when filling in the civil service application form?

your "mandatory" levies are in fact payment for your goldplated pension...so in affect its a deferred income. you'll get it eventually. are your levies before or after tax?

i work in the private sector, as a paye worker, so i know that i'll not make that kind of money unless i win the lotto....thats the choice i made....similarly, i chose a bonus rather than overtime and job for life as offered in the public sector...in the past 2 years it was the wrong one as my hours have increased and have not received a bonus. but i fully expect that when the economy recovers, i'll resume getting bonuses and will leave the public sector (apart from the mandarins and doctors) miles behind.... but again, thats as a result of the choices i make.

perhaps you should make a few yourself rather than let bitterness overcome you.

you have what 95% of entrepeneurs (i.e. the sector that creates the seriously rich) don't have...a pension and job security. and for every entrepeneur like desmond and smurfit, there are thousands who are close to bankruptcy and poverty.

i'm all for a progressive tax system, but if you penalise entrepeneurs then you kill ireland dead. on the other hand, you can tax the fck out of the public sector and because they are
1. unwilling to move to the private sector
2. too incompetent to get a job in the private sector
3. very well paid for fck all work
they'll shout and scream but roll over in the end.

[bobbysands81]

bobby,

if you want to pay 20% tax then leave the public sector....they took massive risks at the start of their career and could have ended up bankrupt...did you take the same risk when filling in the civil service application form?

your "mandatory" levies are in fact payment for your goldplated pension...so in affect its a deferred income. you'll get it eventually. are your levies before or after tax?

i work in the private sector, as a paye worker, so i know that i'll not make that kind of money unless i win the lotto....thats the choice i made....similarly, i chose a bonus rather than overtime and job for life as offered in the public sector...in the past 2 years it was the wrong one as my hours have increased and have not received a bonus. but i fully expect that when the economy recovers, i'll resume getting bonuses and will leave the public sector (apart from the mandarins and doctors) miles behind.... but again, thats as a result of the choices i make.

perhaps you should make a few yourself rather than let bitterness overcome you.

you have what 95% of entrepeneurs (i.e. the sector that creates the seriously rich) don't have...a pension and job security. and for every entrepeneur like desmond and smurfit, there are thousands who are close to bankruptcy and poverty.

i'm all for a progressive tax system, but if you penalise entrepeneurs then you kill ireland dead. on the other hand, you can tax the fck out of the public sector and because they are
1. unwilling to move to the private sector
2. too incompetent to get a job in the private sector
3. very well paid for fck all work
they'll shout and scream but roll over in the end.

So many words without saying a thing.

You do realise that you negated your own argument there?

[Kevin Doyle]

So many words without saying a thing.

You do realise that you negated your own argument there?

Yeah I spotted that too.

[Kevin Doyle]

Noooooo! If the rich have to pay almost as much of their income as a toilet cleaner, they will take their productive genius to such low-tax havens as France and the UK!

One has to wonder where all the rich people in France and the UK have fled to.

[ManOfReason]

Noooooo! If the rich have to pay almost as much of their income as a toilet cleaner, they will take their productive genius to such low-tax havens as France and the UK!

Do you really think that any toilet clean in this country (with the possible execption of those working in the PS) pays any tax?