EU Tax ?

Fat_Fingers

As we are part of the Europe and Europe has its own budget that budget doesn’t come out of nowhere.
I never heard anything about this mentioned. In the US everyone knows what is the state tax and what is the federal tax.
Does anyone have any idea what percentage of our tax (income tax or VAT?) is “federal tax” ?

Riskymove

Fat_Fingers wrote: »

As we are part of the Europe and Europe has its own budget that budget doesn’t come out of nowhere.
I never heard anything about this mentioned. In the US everyone knows what is the state tax and what is the federal tax.
Does anyone have any idea what percentage of our tax (income tax or VAT?) is “federal tax” ?

as far as I know we never became net contributors to the EU, we were due to but then the curerent problems began

we dont pay any of our income tax directly to the EU per say unlike the US

Not much.

Fat_Fingers

Thats interesting, i didn't know we don't pay anything. It doesn't sound right. By that rule then core EU states or as you might call successfully economies are propping up failed states and economies like us, Portugal, Italy, Spain and the others in the east. Surely its not as simple as that?

Riskymove

Fat_Fingers wrote: »

Thats interesting, i didn't know we don't pay anything. It doesn't sound right. By that rule then core EU states or as you might call successfully economies are propping up failed states and economies like us, Portugal, Italy, Spain and the others in the east. Surely its not as simple as that?

we do pay them something towards the budget but we get back more from them than we pay them (i.e. net beneficiary)

i do not know whether we actually pay them or we just are given the balance

ei.sdraob

Riskymove wrote: »

we do pay them something towards the budget but we get back more from them than we pay them (i.e. net beneficiary)

i do not know whether we actually pay them or we just are given the balance

you are right we never paid in more than we took out, even in the best of times, tho did come close to breaking even

@Fat_Fingers the EU budget is tiny

To pay for this, the EU had an agreed budget of €120.7 billion for the year 2007 and €864.3 billion for the period 2007-2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_European_Union


compare that to 3.5 trillion dollars in US > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

so 120 odd billion euro a year compared to 3.5 trillion dollars :eek:

also about half of the EU budget goes to farmers

Scofflaw

Riskymove wrote: »

we do pay them something towards the budget but we get back more from them than we pay them (i.e. net beneficiary)

i do not know whether we actually pay them or we just are given the balance

We pay into the EU through customs duties, through a VAT levy (0.3%), and through a GNI based levy. The first two between them contribute about 23% of the EU's budget, the latter about 76% (the difference of 1% is made up by a levy on sugar exports).

In 2008, Ireland paid €1,700m to the EU, and received €2,159m from the EU (Source: Table 10). The money we paid in was as follows:

1 % of gross national income multiplied by 50% capping rate: €859,976,500
1 % of capped VAT base: €859,976,500

Payment back from the EU breaks down:

FEOGA (Agriculture) €9.0m
European Agricultural Guarantee Fund: €1,447.0 m
European Agricultural for Rural Development: €356.0 m
European Social Fund: €108.2 m
European Regional Development Fund: €125.0 m
Cohesion Fund: €62.4 m
Other: €52.2 m

So most of the money in is generated by businesses (and probably in the cities), and most of the money goes back to the farmers.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Red_Marauder

Scofflaw wrote: »

So most of the money in is generated by businesses (and probably in the cities), and most of the money goes back to the farmers.

Most of this is generated by non farming businesses, but I wouldn't be so sure that it is raised in the cities.
The largest exports in 2008 (to which your figures relate) were in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and the computer hardware industries. While they don't generally grow out of the side of a hill in Leitrim (usually) I'm not quite convinced that these can be described as city industries.
http://www.finfacts.ie/artman/uploads/3/Irish-merchandise-exports-2009_jan072010.jpg

In 2008, 7bn euro of our exports were agri-foods or live animal exports. They were our third biggest single export.

A lot of the money received from the EU goes into the food economy as opposed to necessarily going to farmers in general.
A substantial amount goes into rural development which effects a lot more people than farmers - including many of those who work in pharma or technology factories and may depend on some aspect of rural development in day to day living.

Not one of the industries I see in that exports list are "city" industries.

Scofflaw

Red_Marauder wrote: »

Most of this is generated by non farming businesses, but I wouldn't be so sure that it is raised in the cities.
The largest exports in 2008 (to which your figures relate) were in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and the computer hardware industries. While they don't generally grow out of the side of a hill in Leitrim (usually) I'm not quite convinced that these can be described as city industries.
http://www.finfacts.ie/artman/uploads/3/Irish-merchandise-exports-2009_jan072010.jpg

In 2008, 7bn euro of our exports were agri-foods or live animal exports. They were our third biggest single export.

A lot of the money received from the EU goes into the food economy as opposed to necessarily going to farmers in general.
A substantial amount goes into rural development which effects a lot more people than farmers - including many of those who work in pharma or technology factories and may depend on some aspect of rural development in day to day living.

Not one of the industries I see in that exports list are "city" industries.

Fair points, and I stand very happily corrected.

cordially,
Scofflaw