What do you get for your tax

leviathon

Just got my end of year payslip, which has a summary of all i've paid for the year. Between USC/PRSI etc I've paid out over 6 grand in tax.

Which got me thinking... I've hard the whinger side of "taxes are too high, we shouldn't have to pay any taxes etc" and the other side who say "But you must pay taxes for public services, we are a low-tax country etc". I get that we have to pay taxes, we have to for certain services. Which got me further thinking...what services? What exactly did I get for my 6K?

Roads have to be paid for. Hang on, I've already paid out almost 500 quid for my road tax this year, not to mention the tax on petrol.

Infrastructure -Well I pay the ESB for the power, Don't have a landline but I'd be paying Eircom for that, Bord gais etc etc for these.

So what else.Hospitals. Ok this I get, expensive to run but then I have paid out about 500 quid there to VHI for my cover, as I have done every year.

Upkeep of public areas like parks and things like that? Ok maybe.
Water supply, fine.

Maybe I'm being thick here but...

What was that 6K tax money used for then???

Oranage2

leviathon wrote: »

Just got my end of year payslip, which has a summary of all i've paid for the year. Between USC/PRSI etc I've paid out over 6 grand in tax.

Which got me thinking... I've hard the whinger side of "taxes are too high, we shouldn't have to pay any taxes etc" and the other side who say "But you must pay taxes for public services, we are a low-tax country etc". I get that we have to pay taxes, we have to for certain services. Which got me further thinking...what services? What exactly did I get for my 6K?

Roads have to be paid for. Hang on, I've already paid out almost 500 quid for my road tax this year, not to mention the tax on petrol.

Infrastructure -Well I pay the ESB for the power, Don't have a landline but I'd be paying Eircom for that, Bord gais etc etc for these.

So what else.Hospitals. Ok this I get, expensive to run but then I have paid out about 500 quid there to VHI for my cover, as I have done every year.

Upkeep of public areas like parks and things like that? Ok maybe.
Water supply, fine.

Maybe I'm being thick here but...

What was that 6K tax money used for then???

Your the proud new owner of a bank and countless housing estates.

smash

leviathon wrote: »

Just got my end of year payslip, which has a summary of all i've paid for the year. Between USC/PRSI etc I've paid out over 6 grand in tax.

I just checked mine and I've paid out just over twice that.

Morlar

leviathon wrote: »

Just got my end of year payslip, which has a summary of all i've paid for the year. Between USC/PRSI etc I've paid out over 6 grand in tax.

Which got me thinking... I've hard the whinger side of "taxes are too high, we shouldn't have to pay any taxes etc" and the other side who say "But you must pay taxes for public services, we are a low-tax country etc". I get that we have to pay taxes, we have to for certain services. Which got me further thinking...what services? What exactly did I get for my 6K?

Roads have to be paid for. Hang on, I've already paid out almost 500 quid for my road tax this year, not to mention the tax on petrol.

Infrastructure -Well I pay the ESB for the power, Don't have a landline but I'd be paying Eircom for that, Bord gais etc etc for these.

So what else.Hospitals. Ok this I get, expensive to run but then I have paid out about 500 quid there to VHI for my cover, as I have done every year.

Upkeep of public areas like parks and things like that? Ok maybe.
Water supply, fine.

Maybe I'm being thick here but...

What was that 6K tax money used for then???

Public Sector and Welfare are the 2 major state expenditure areas not mentioned in your post.

ThinkAboutIt

A taxpayer high horse to use over everyone else. To remind people you "pay their dole" and "built those roads" these things cost millions of Euros but you, and only you, paid for them, on your taxpayer high horse.

old_aussie

I get a big return, I get all my tax back.

Anyone

Social Welfare, schools, police

OneArt

One thing that's always grated on me about Ireland is how Medieval the public transport is. I'm back visiting for Christmas and it is a nightmare trying to get around unless I beg lifts off people.

I'm glad I'm paying taxes to a country that will actually spend on decent public services.

I miss the underground

yeppydeppy

Politicians - you've gotta pay to keep them in the life style they are used to.

sensibleken

leviathon wrote: »

Just got my end of year payslip, which has a summary of all i've paid for the year. Between USC/PRSI etc I've paid out over 6 grand in tax.

Which got me thinking... I've hard the whinger side of "taxes are too high, we shouldn't have to pay any taxes etc" and the other side who say "But you must pay taxes for public services, we are a low-tax country etc". I get that we have to pay taxes, we have to for certain services. Which got me further thinking...what services? What exactly did I get for my 6K?

Roads have to be paid for. Hang on, I've already paid out almost 500 quid for my road tax this year, not to mention the tax on petrol.

Infrastructure -Well I pay the ESB for the power, Don't have a landline but I'd be paying Eircom for that, Bord gais etc etc for these.

So what else.Hospitals. Ok this I get, expensive to run but then I have paid out about 500 quid there to VHI for my cover, as I have done every year.

Upkeep of public areas like parks and things like that? Ok maybe.
Water supply, fine.

Maybe I'm being thick here but...

What was that 6K tax money used for then???

No you havent, youve paid for Motor tax.
VHI doesnt pay for hospitals

Do you actually think 6K is put aside in a little pile labled "for liviathon's needs only"

maybe then you should ask for it back then go live on an island and be self sufficient.

leviathon

Police, Schools. indeedy.

I'm not trying to spin it as a "taxes are too high" or "too low" argument. You hear that everywhere bout the banks and all that but is it really like that? First time I've actually added up the amount I've paid in the year and seemed like a lot for what I earn, so is it justified is what I'm asking I guess. If I thought we get something decent out of it all I'll just suck it up and accept it, but if it is a case where the vast majority of it just gets wasted into banks and crap then I'd be none so happy.

Impossible to know but I'd love to see an actual breakdown of how much goes where.

leviathon

sensibleken wrote: »

No you havent, youve paid for Motor tax.
VHI doesnt pay for hospitals

Do you actually think 6K is put aside in a little pile labled "for liviathon's needs only"

maybe then you should ask for it back then go live on an island and be self sufficient.

Ah no I don't think like that, just musing is all. Have heard the arguments both sides of this country being Low/High tax, just having an oul think on it is all, slow morning.

Warper

So what do you want then? Lower taxes for even sh1ttier public services

Blitzkrieger

Well if you think of it on a bang for buck scale, if you compare it to the going rate for prozzies and divide it over the year - you get ****ed a lot more by the government...

gerarda

A friend of mine is an economics lecturer specializing on the Irish tax system and told me that you would be amazed at the amount of things that the ordinary joe doesn't claim tax back on simply because they didn't know they could or (more likely) didn't bother finding out if they could. I asked her about certain bills I had to pay during the year and she assured me I could claim tax back (nearly 600 euro!). A lot of people would rather moan about paying tax instead of simply finding out what they can claim on.

spoofilyj

So other than Roads, aquaducts, bread, sandals. What have the Romans ever done for us?

We pay tax to keep everything in society going, your tax goes towards everything, its a fact, theres nothing you can do about it.
Six grand is not even a drop in the ocean in what is needed to run the country.

Roads, schools, hospitals, prisons, guards, nurses, all infrastructure, water, electricity etc.

Your tax is not enough and neither is everyone elses as there is a massive shortfall due to the economic nose dive we're in, coupled with the fact that yes we pay car and other external tax like VAT but 1 km of dual carrage way costs 2 million to make and up to 50 k a year to maintain so your 500 car tax will not even dent such a bill, especially when 2 km is no good and it has to be 100km and all of a sudden there's a 200 million bill, how far is your 6k going to go, well you can have 30 cm of road for that!

leviathon

I must have phrased my first post wrong, I'm not giving out about it, just curious. I'm so used to hearing the usual stories about money being fired into the bottomless pit of the banks, and this being a crap country to live in etc etc. I have to wonder if that is actually true or does the media just love doom and gloom. I'm if anything trying to be a bit more optimistic.

In fact when you list everything out it seems a lot to cover, so is it a fact that we are a low tax country?

Morlar

leviathon wrote: »

I must have phrased my first post wrong, I'm not giving out about it, just curious. .........

It's perfectly normal to wonder where exactly it all goes to. I think every taxpayer has wondered that at some point or another. Seeing in black and white how much you contribute annually can be a sobering experience.

ejmaztec

Most of the deductions go on the purchase of vast quantities of piss, just so's the government can blast us with it on an hourly basis.

Bruce7

Working out the answer to this question is simple. Divide the amount of tax you paid by the number of people in the country.

= 6000/4500000

You get 0.13 cents of value for the amount of tax that you paid.

This is also the amount that each individual in the country gains from your contribution.

Luckily, you are not the only taxpayer in the country.

uch

Poorer !

Cee-Jay-Cee

fúck all.

saa

I don't understand the point of claiming tax back there must be some admin for that and as much as it seems we don't get a lot we still don't cover what we're spending and its doesn't help that the money we do spend is badly managed.

I am happy to pay higher tax if education, health and the safety nets are still there, I'm becoming doubtful.

Galtee

sensibleken wrote: »

No you havent, youve paid for Motor tax.
VHI doesnt pay for hospitals

Do you actually think 6K is put aside in a little pile labled "for liviathon's needs only"

maybe then you should ask for it back then go live on an island and be self sufficient.

VHI don't pay for hospitals but they do pay hospitals.

lynchie

Morlar wrote: »

Public Sector and Welfare are the 2 major state expenditure areas not mentioned in your post.

Yup and social welfare almost accounts for all PAYE income collected this year!

All PAYE income including USC upto end Nov 11 €12.7bn
All monies paid out to Social Protection upto end Nov 2011 €12.2bn

44leto

We are priviliaged. free education to secondary level, a highly subsidised health system and a very generous state pensions and welfare and various other public services that more then half the world would ever dream of.

checkyabadself

A receipt.

ejmaztec

saa wrote: »

I don't understand the point of claiming tax back there must be some admin for that and as much as it seems we don't get a lot we still don't cover what we're spending and its doesn't help that the money we do spend is badly managed.

I am happy to pay higher tax if education, health and the safety nets are still there, I'm becoming doubtful.

AnonoBoy

When I was a kid I used to get to not get beaten up in the schoolyard for my 'Donal Tax'.

These days I'm not sure but I suspect some of it still finds its way to Donal (probably through social welfare).

Blazer

A sore hole.

dxhound2005

leviathon wrote: »

Just got my end of year payslip, which has a summary of all i've paid for the year. Between USC/PRSI etc I've paid out over 6 grand in tax.

Which got me thinking... I've hard the whinger side of "taxes are too high, we shouldn't have to pay any taxes etc" and the other side who say "But you must pay taxes for public services, we are a low-tax country etc". I get that we have to pay taxes, we have to for certain services. Which got me further thinking...what services? What exactly did I get for my 6K?

Roads have to be paid for. Hang on, I've already paid out almost 500 quid for my road tax this year, not to mention the tax on petrol.

Infrastructure -Well I pay the ESB for the power, Don't have a landline but I'd be paying Eircom for that, Bord gais etc etc for these.

So what else.Hospitals. Ok this I get, expensive to run but then I have paid out about 500 quid there to VHI for my cover, as I have done every year.

Upkeep of public areas like parks and things like that? Ok maybe.
Water supply, fine.

Maybe I'm being thick here but...

What was that 6K tax money used for then???

A lot of it is going on something called Social Protection. Someone in your family might even be getting some.

Department of Social Protection will spend €21 billion, or almost 40 per cent of all current government expenditure, this year.

To be precise: four in every ten euros that the government spends are spent on social protection.

Eric Cartman

as im self employed, and have never had a positive interaction with the gards and have never been to hospital , since ive started paying tax I have officially received no benefit from the government aside from roads and infrastructure, everything else is of 0 benefit to me

drdeadlift

Eric Cartman wrote: »

as im self employed, and have never had a positive interaction with the gards and have never been to hospital , since ive started paying tax I have officially received no benefit from the government aside from roads and infrastructure, everything else is of 0 benefit to me

and when you do go to the hospital they will be looking for something close to 100 euro of ya..

Eric Cartman

drdeadlift wrote: »

and when you do go to the hospital they will be looking for something close to 100 euro of ya..

VHI

dxhound2005

Eric Cartman wrote: »

as im self employed, and have never had a positive interaction with the gards and have never been to hospital , since ive started paying tax I have officially received no benefit from the government aside from roads and infrastructure, everything else is of 0 benefit to me

Have you ever had a negative interaction with the guards and have you unofficially received benefits?

Benny_Cake

Eric Cartman wrote: »

as im self employed, and have never had a positive interaction with the gards and have never been to hospital , since ive started paying tax I have officially received no benefit from the government aside from roads and infrastructure, everything else is of 0 benefit to me

You don't think that having Gardai is beneficial unless you have to go them over something? Also, have you used water from a tap at all, because up to now it's been provided free of charge to most domestic users?

RichieC

Eric Cartman wrote: »

as im self employed, and have never had a positive interaction with the gards and have never been to hospital , since ive started paying tax I have officially received no benefit from the government aside from roads and infrastructure, everything else is of 0 benefit to me

indirectly you are. as much as people like to call the place a dump, it would be far worse without the garda. even wprse if every person not in work had to go around the law to feed themselves and their families.

its ignorant or disenvenous to say you dont benefit.

Eric Cartman

Benny_Cake wrote: »

You don't think that having Gardai is beneficial unless you have to go them over something? Also, have you used water from a tap at all, because up to now it's been provided free of charge to most domestic users?

i said infrastructure

RichieC wrote: »

indirectly you are. as much as people like to call the place a dump, it would be far worse without the garda. even wprse if every person not in work had to go around the law to feed themselves and their families.

its ignorant or disenvenous to say you dont benefit.

to be fair a lot of them dont do their jobs , id have no problem paying for gardai if they sacked 90% of traffic core and actually showed up in less than 2 hours when you called about a burglary etc... but ill somewhat conceed that paying for emergency services is necessary however I dont agree with having to pay for

social welfare
anything to do with immigrants aside from deporting them
revenue
most of the government
shítty bodies like the RSA, PSA, coillte, etc....
the HSE
tv licence / RTE
council houses
the planning board
anythign to do with policing drugs
restoring old buildings
gardai defending embassies

sock puppet

Eric Cartman wrote: »

as im self employed, and have never had a positive interaction with the gards and have never been to hospital , since ive started paying tax I have officially received no benefit from the government aside from roads and infrastructure, everything else is of 0 benefit to me

Well it cost the state quite a bit of money to bring you to the position where you'd be able to run your own business.

Eric Cartman

sock puppet wrote: »

Well it cost the state quite a bit of money to bring you to the position where you'd be able to run your own business.

and my parents paid tax in exchange for that , I will not be having children so why should I pay for the education of others

sock puppet

Eric Cartman wrote: »

revenue
shítty bodies like the RSA, PSA, coillte, etc....

Without Revenue there wouldn't be any government. The RSA have overseen a dramatic fall in the number of annual road deaths. We've one of the lowest rates of road fatalities in the world.

Benny_Cake

Maybe because when they grow up and start working they'll be helping to pay the taxes, to provide the Gardai and provide the free healthcare to look after you in your old age. A counter-argument would be that you should pay extra tax to cover the future cost to the state and economy of your not having children - which is a non-sensical argument but no more than the one you've just made.

Eric Cartman

sock puppet wrote: »

Without Revenue there wouldn't be any government. The RSA have overseen a dramatic fall in the number of annual road deaths. We've one of the lowest rates of road fatalities in the world.

im not complaining about the governments need for gettin gmoney in , its the bloated organisation that is the revenue and how badly theyre doing it that i have a problem with

is that just down to the RSA or perhaps improving safety standards in cars, people with the licences that werent just given to them and the nct making sure peoples cars are roadworthy. The RSA are taking credit for all those external factors and instead just generating money and problems with a stupidly low drink drive limit , private speed cameras and propoganda campaigns that claim males under 25 are the cause of all of irelands problems

sock puppet

Eric Cartman wrote: »

and my parents paid tax in exchange for that , I will not be having children so why should I pay for the education of others

That's one of the stupidest questions I've ever seen. Who do you think will be paying for your old age? If your answer is that you'll provide for yourself completely you still need young workers to work in the companies you've invested in, the hospitals you'll be using etc

is that just down to the RSA or perhaps improving safety standards in cars, people with the licences that werent just given to them and the nct making sure peoples cars are roadworthy. The RSA are taking credit for all those external factors and instead just generating money and problems with a stupidly low drink drive limit , private speed cameras and propoganda campaigns that claim males under 25 are the cause of all of irelands problems

People in other countries drive the same cars as us, have driving tests like ours, and something similar to the NCT yet are more dangerous drivers. I'm not saying this is definitely because of the RSA campaings but at a glance you'd have to say they're doing a reasonable job.

Benny_Cake

Eric Cartman wrote: »

shítty bodies like the RSA, PSA, coillte, etc....

Coillte ran a significant profit last year: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0428/coillte-business.html

Eric Cartman

Benny_Cake wrote: »

Coillte ran a significant profit last year: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0428/coillte-business.html

that i did not know, well if their profiting they shouldnt need anyones tax money so

Eric Cartman

sock puppet wrote: »

That's one of the stupidest questions I've ever seen. Who do you think will be paying for your old age? If your answer is that you'll provide for yourself completely you still need young workers to work in the companies you've invested in, the hospitals you'll be using etc



People in other countries drive the same cars as us, have driving tests like ours, and something similar to the NCT yet are more dangerous drivers. I'm not saying this is definitely because of the RSA campaings but at a glance you'd have to say they're doing a reasonable job.

speed cameras, speed ramps, the campaigns against the young male, lower speed limits, window tint laws - all wasted money that does more harm than good, the RSA may seem like a good idea on paper but theyve wasted all our money by not doing their job properly

sock puppet

Eric Cartman wrote: »

speed cameras, speed ramps, the campaigns against the young male, lower speed limits, window tint laws - all wasted money that does more harm than good, the RSA may seem like a good idea on paper but theyve wasted all our money by not doing their job properly

The roads are getting safer and safer. How exactly can they improve upon this?

Freddie59

Morlar wrote: »

Public Sector and Welfare are the 2 major state expenditure areas wastes of money not mentioned in your post.

FYP.

Ray Palmer

sensibleken wrote: »

VHI doesnt pay for hospitals

Actually they do and have done for years. The hospital overcharge them for all procedures. They weren't allowed haggle as they were a semi-state. One of the biggest scams carried out by the state. Mean while the private insurance comapnies were able to come in and get cheaper rates. The private companies were then forced to sell at the same price as VHI.

Galtee

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Actually they do and have done for years. The hospital overcharge them for all procedures. They weren't allowed haggle as they were a semi-state. One of the biggest scams carried out by the state. Mean while the private insurance comapnies were able to come in and get cheaper rates. The private companies were then forced to sell at the same price as VHI.

Actually, that's not strictly true. The VHI dictated what they would pay for certain procedures and the hospitals then had to haggle to get a fair price from them but either way VHI paid hospitals for procedures carried out under their care.