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THE SHADOW OF Budget 2012 is beginning to loom even though it is not due until the beginning of December. Finance Minister Michael Noonan is due to pulish a deficit reduction plan this month to outline spending cuts and tax increases for the next three to four years.
Our pals at TheLineIreland took to the streets of Dublin this weekend to ask people what taxes they would prefer to see raised in December’s Budget, if – as suspected – they will be.
Property taxes came into their sights – and so too did wealthy individuals…
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Tax the people who made a fortune from the bubble and are not reinvesting in the economy, and the people who caused the collapse, call it the economic reparation tax.
Increasing tax rates to correct the public finances is like eating soup with a fork.
Increasing marginal rates does not necessarily increase tax take and can have the opposite.
While cutting spending can have achieveable and quantifiable results. Increasing taxes above an optimum level is subject to diminishing returns.
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
Winston Churchill
‘Increasing taxes above an optimum level is subject to diminishing returns.’
I love this phrase that you hear again and again (especially on Fox news but thats a different situation).
Its technically true but unless you produce any evidence we are at that level now its nonsense. What about a tax-rate of lets say 48% for 100,000 plus? Ive no notion what that would bring in but do have any evidence that introducing that band (which is easily not the highest in the world) would detrimentally affect the tax take?
Or any evidence we are at the apex of the nameless tax take bell curve you refer to.
The simple fact is Connor that our government are spending way too much money and have been for a long time.
I lived through the last era when the government tried to tax it’s way to a correction. If you think things are bad now wait until they try that.
http://www.ronanlyons.com/2009/10/21/tax-increases-or-spending-cuts-is-irelands-government-too-big/
Irelands gov spending last year has us in the top league of that profligate money wasters.
Hit the people who can afford it !!!
The priority has to be cutting government spending in all sectors apart from frontline hospital, education and policing.
Everything else should go.
At the moment there is too much waste and inefficiency in terms of spending money.
After cuts are made in terms of spending then the government can consider raising taxes.
3rd tier of tax… 60% of income earned after 200,000 or so…. that would raise a lot of revenue and wouldn’t hit the poor. only those who can afford it.
I don’t see that any taxes should be increased until after the corrupt and fraudulent practises have been sorted. TD’s and Senators and others claiming for expenses that they are not entitled to. Benefit payments that are sent abroad with the exception of "the State Pension" providing the required qualifying payments were made here. A cap placed on benefit payments. Then and only then should tax increases be thought about.
Tax the Hob Nobs in Irish society… if they threaten to leave our shores with our wealth then let them go…expulsion of ‘Greed’ ought to be a long term creative vision of recovery…
Close off the tax loop-holes that cost us €4bn a year.
Abolish local authority rates and replace them with a 1% of turnover tax, or lower if we can afford it.
Abolish carbon taxes and VAT on all fuel types. Have a set excise duty of 50c per litre.
Establish a state oil and gas company like Norway have and pass a law that takes control of all resources in our territory. Any company that threatens legal action will loose cause the minister that gave the rights away was corrupt, thus voiding the contract.
Abolish childrens allowance and divert it to FIS and child dependent social welfare recipients.
Abolish rent allowance, anyone who cannot afford to rent privately will be given a NAMA house to rent from NAMA at reasonable rates. This will have two positive effects… 1- reduce rents for normal PAYE folk, 2- eat into the over supply stock of houses thus will help kick-start house building.
Well said Daniel
Thanks Paul, I’d have a few more ideas too, but these would help the country big time this year. It would be a start.
Well if you over tax the super rich they will just lay off a few people too cover it, its the sad reality off this nation.
This may be true, however, we must think beyond our selfish self interests to transcend this “catch 22″ scenareo, or they will remain commited to repeat this same pattern of lustful greed into our future, lets nip it on the bud now while we have this opportunity… for the future generations of our young people…
No tax increases. Spending cuts to get the deficit inline, but start messing with tax increases and the economy will tank for sure. A country can’t tax it’s way out of a recession and we’re already on the brink.
If anything, they should slightly lower a tax or two- breeds confidence. Confidence is the true measurement of an economy’s prospects.
the govt need to save/make cuts of approx 4 billion this yr, and tax avoidence loophole cost the state around 4 billion per yr! why have none of the so called highly paid advisors spotted this? could it be that they are the very people making use of these loopholes? lowering the tax on fuel would avoid people falling into ‘fuel poverty ‘ and make it cheaper to get products to the shops, this could lead to a reduction in prices and people might start to spend a bit more therefore increasing the v.a.t. take, that would make up for the loss of revenue from over taxed fuel, and a 10% levy on betting, be it at the bookies, the racetrack online or the lottery would bring in millions of extra revenue, getback some of what was lost under mccreevy and his horse racing pals, a 10% tax on the lotto would mean a price rise of 15 cent per line, i dont see many people NOT doing the lotto because of a small price rise like that. if there has to be cutbacks, make them in the right way for a change, get shot of half the t.d’s, and stop paying dirty great pensions to ex – ceo’ and politicians, cut the number of county councils and the ‘executive’ posts that go with them, in the h.s.e. get rid of the ‘commitees’ and quango’s and the high paid advisers that sit on them, ask any ordenary person where savings could and should be made and they’ll tell you for free, why do we have these committes when were already paying civil servents to do these jobs?
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