Ship

Very good caroline, ships also use diesel.

Chris. could not agree more. Friend has a truck gone from around €5 a mile last year in diesel to around €7 a mile at the moment. All gets past on to consumers as hauliers have no choice.

Why on earth have people given this comment a red thumb?

Income tax is not bad here considering and generally hasn’t changed here since last year (the USC threshold for those on low incomes was increased). A single person on 40k looses approximately 25% in income tax, USC and PRSI.

I red thumbed because I don’t understand it. Maybe english isn’t their first language, but I still can’t make head nor tail of it.

@reg “Income tax is not bad here” is a dreadful opening Reg, it should have been followed with… but we have so many stealth taxes we likely pay more than those paying large income tax in countries across Scandinavia. Just thought I’d mention that.

John – every country has so called stealth taxes in one form or another. I was simply referring to income tax and by international comparisons we’re not as badly off as many people think.

@Reg

That is a tired myth, we are not a low income tax economy, we are a low profit tax economy.

I currently pay 55% (marginal tax rate) (41% + 4%PRSI +10%USC) before extortionate VAT dates, household charges, Road tax, Duty rates that are ridiculous, Carbon Tax etc etc.
This rate of 55% is our maximum rate and kicks in at far lower incomes than most in the OECD, the very low 36K.

For comparision Germanys highest income tax is 45%, which you do not reach until you earn over 80K.
Sweden often listed as the highest is 57% (effective tax) their income tax is only 25%. And they have the best services in the world in return.

Once you earn between 40K – 80K you will be paying close to the highest income tax rates in the world for these income levels.

The next question is where does it all go, well we all know where.

HelloGoogleTracking! – Where did I say we are a low tax economy – I never said it. I also have no argument with the points you have raised. But what I am talking about is income taxes and what I said is that compared to many other countries the % you loose (from income tax, PRSI and USC) is not as bad as many think.

You have failed to mention the income tax credits people receive. A single person (PAYE employee) receives a tax credit of € 3300 per year which is why a single person on 40k looses approximately 25% to income tax, PRSI and USC. Their effective tax rate is 25%. For someone earning 100k the effective tax rate is about 40%.

Cheers Reg,

I appreciate your points and they are well made.
I was referring to your income tax comparisions, I said “we are not a low income tax economy”, I agree that credits have to be taken into account.

I pay 35% effective income tax, total tax per month * 12, as a percentage of gross income. This is after credits are in force.

I earn nowhere near 80k, and the rate of 35% at incomes that low, this is very high compared to OECD. Check the math with your own pay, you might be surprised.

Low tax you mean?

Irish top rate of tax 41%. German top rate of tax 42% changes to 45% for someone earning €250,730 or above.

Add in Ireland to the 41% VRT, USC and the rest of the stealth taxes and I’d say you might find there is very little difference in tax levels in fact you would probably find we in Ireland pay more then the average German. So no I don’t mean a low tax regime. It’s a myth that Ireland is a low tax economy.

Kerry, in Germany they alo pay a further 20% in social security and state pension contributions and a local property tax averaging 3.5% on the assessed value.

I was just trying to figure out what are you on about? I mean this hasn’t been a low cost economy in decades so what was your original comment about?

@Ben
The social security tax in germany is shared with the employer similar to ours here, its not all paid by the individual.

For example, you pay 4% PRSI, your employer pays 10.75% total = 14.75%

This is on top of 55% marginal tax rate that kicks in for earners here at €36K
Germany top marginal rate only kicks in after 250k and increases to 45% max.

As you can see we pay more, and lower on the pay scale, and low middle earners carry the can.

McWilliams want’s to leave the euro and devalue.
Now that would give you some real inflation instead of this little 2.2% especially in anything imported like oil.

It’s not ireland ripping you off it’s the euro losing its pretend value