2012 Finance Bill manipulates the tax system to benefit the better off - unjust and unfair

Proposals in the 2012 Finance Bill to provide tax incentives aimed at luring senior multinational executives to Ireland mark a return to the worst practices of manipulating the tax system to benefit the better off while increasing costs and cutting services for the country’s poorest

Social Justice Ireland believes that the financial services industry is responsible for much of the present mess in which Ireland finds itself. It is preposterous that Government proposes to reduce the tax paid by top-earning executives in the financial services sector when the huge gambling losses incurred by this sector are already being paid by Ireland’s tax-payers, particularly Ireland’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

Social Justice Ireland also wishes to point out that:

· The richest 10% of the population has more disposable income than the bottom half of the population. 

· The richest 10% of the population has an average disposable income (i.e. after tax) of €118,677 a year compared to an average disposable income of €10,973 for the poorest 10% of the population.

These figures show that in the Finance Bill Government is proposing to increase the income of the richest and widen the gap between them and the poorest in society. This is totally unacceptable in a society where inequality has been growing dramatically in recent years.

Social Justice Ireland presented a series of proposals for a fairer tax system in its Budget Choices Policy Briefing published in October 2011 which may be accessed here.