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« The ESRI Paper - Now You See It, Now You Don't | Main | Splashing the Water »

June 26, 2012

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tellsitlikeitis

"Second, progressive taxation to pay for quality services – with a long-term aim of increasing taxation to average EU levels, as measured as a proportion of GDP. In the short-term taxation ‘should fall harder on highest income earners’ with suggestions of a wealth tax, standardising tax reliefs and a new top rate of tax."

Michael, don't you see the contradiction here?

You want to bring Irish taxation levels up to European levels, while exempting the income deciles which are currently paying tax at levels furthest from the European norms.

One of the biggest problems with our taxation structure is its top-heaviness ... far too big a share of the income tax take is accounted for by very few tax-payers. This leaves the yield highly susceptible to sudden shocks due to income reductions squeezing an ever-smaller group paying tax at the high rate.

You seem to be proposing that this structural weakness is addressed by making it even more top-heavy.

If European tax norms are the way to go, why are you not in favour of applying these norms across the board?

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