Ireland the land of taxes and endless "fees"

rather than taxing the **** out of fossil fuels, wouldnt it be a better idea to offer a green alternative at much the same price? There is no green alternative at much the same price - thats the problem.

As someone pointed out earlier one of the reasons there are so many environmental issues in Asia is because we have outsourced manufacturing to a large extent.

I'm still waiting for you to name the country where you paid only 9% income tax on a good wage and were getting Scandinavian levels of services?

NO they are not , not everyone in the private sector have got pay rises and the Public sector are paid over 20% more per person than the private sector.

Should it be privatised.

Exactly.

its about the only thing we don’t pay tax on.

our earnings / saved earnings are essentially hit and taxed four times…

PAYE

PSRI

USC

DIRT

taxes on our purchases… VAT, motor tax, inheritance tax which is a form of criminality as that income has been taxed multiple times already.

Pricing up a one way flight to New York JFK with Aer Lingus

458.45 gross price

271.44 for the flight

187.01 in taxes…

we don’t get anywhere near bang for our buck from these taxes. Don’t mind paying if we did.

Again… hospital waiting lists out the door, SFA in the way of rehabilitative beds for physical disability or illness, shîte public transport. Not enough Gardai, not enough prison places. But we are hammered for tax.

We pay a lot of taxes like Scandavian countries, but we get poor value in return in terms of medical care, GP, dental, eye care, orthodondists, 3rd level educatiin (plus cost of living for students as well as fees), housing for lower paid workers, public transport, roads, motorways, foothpaths, public toilets ... jesus, I could go on forever.

But we seem to serve people who dont work (by choice) really well. We get a gold start for that social welfare service !!

I,ve visited sweden, norway & denmark in the past 6 years. Prices not far off eating & drinking out in Ireland. Norway Supermarket beer cans 500ml 4.5-5% alcohol, about the same as cans of 4.5-5% larger cans here thanks to MUP.

I lived and worked in Germany for over 7 years in recent years, I paid a lot less income tax than in Ireland, car insurance €150 a year, government medical insurance card type system for medical insurance taken out of my wages ... I never paid for GP or medical consultants for when refered (refered once and got an appointment within a month at private clinic), didnt pay a penny. They simply asked for my insurance card. I know Irish people who had surgery, child care benefits, etc.. in Germany, they were amazed at the service and benefits.

My relative who has private medical insurance was told there was a 6 to 9 month wait for a private MRI for a bad knee. HsE would have been 2 years+. She went to Spain for a holiday, walked into a private clinic, paid €150 for a scan, got them to send the results to her consultant in Ireland. He accepted them and reviewed the results with my relative.

Why why why cant Ireland get basic service and value for money from the billions tax revenue ???

And I'd like to say that once in the HSE system for critical care (cadio, cancer, maternity, etc..), they provide a very good serivce and frontline staff are best in the world.

No need to imagine.

Let's do the calculations, or else use the PWC calculator.

200k in 2023

First 40k @ 20 % = 8,000

Next 160k @ 40 % = 64,000

72,000 tax less tax credits of (1775 + 1775 = 3,550)

Total tax due is 68,450 or 34.225%

PRSI is a clean 4% or 8,000, meaning the total is now 76,450 or 38.225%

USC = 12,795, thanks to PWC

Total is 89,245 or 44.6%

300k is 141,245 so still under 50%

500k is 245,245, so still under 50%, just about

Direct tax, indirect tax, value add tax and other fees and duties. Its all means you have less real Net income at the end of the month (for food, clothes, shelter, entertainment, small treats and holidays). And the fact is, our net spendable income is less in Ireland that our northern european and scandanavian neighbours. So call it what you what, its the cost of living in ireland with mandatory taxes and duties applied to living wages for working people.