Why so much TAX?

Gerry Canning said:
Chief here !
I have the perception (could be wrong) that a lot of acquired wealth is not achieved by work ,my inclination is to tweek the system to keep working taxes down.
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Looked up CGT as a % of total tax take for poops and giggles (publicpolicy.ie); At 33% CGT, in 2014, CGT was €400 million out of total take of €40 billion. There's a case for higher CGT on passive income, but it's not going to bring in the kind of revenue that you have in mind.
 
Klaus,
I do not have any kind of revenue in mind, I leave that to the number crunchers. !

It appears to me that it is odd, that in a recession our tax workings have benefited those (really better off) v ( the less well off).
It appears to me we have a Thatcherite aversion to looking @ fairness .
It appears to me we also have a cohort of people who believe there is a magic pot of {wealthy} people waiting to be tax plucked.
It appears to me we also have inculcated an entitlement culture on the (can,t pay, won,t pay ) model.

The Question was asked (why so much tax?)

It is very simple , to pay for services.

The harder question is whether, we the voters accept ,more services = more taxes.
efficient services = vote losing decisions.

I would hope that if voters could see that taxes are spent fairly well ,we would not have your question.

I would worry that Governments have reduced Governance to seeing how they can juggle books in short -term market management , forgetting they are managing a society not a PLC ?
 
Gerry Canning said:
Klaus,

"It appears to me we have a Thatcherite aversion to looking @ fairness ."

I would worry that Governments have reduced Governance to seeing how they can juggle books in short -term market management , forgetting they are managing a society not a PLC ?
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How would you define "fairness"? It's a term that's thrown around a lot, but what would it look like in Ireland, 2015?

I didn't ask the question, I think we pay too much tax and it's going to cause us problems in the long term.

Governments need to balance the books, otherwise you end up like Greece, at the mercy of your creditors. Given all that's happened in the last decade, I wouldn't be looking for wisdom or moral & cultural guidance from the empty shirts that tend to end up in government, so let them focus on that.
 
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Gerry,
Margaret Thatcher had no aversion to fairness. In fact she conceded the failure of her poll tax was chiefly due to its unfairness.

Back to the main point, it's well established that high capital tax rates depress the tax take from capital gains and acquisitions, because asset disposals and gifts are generally voluntary and can be postponed ad infinitum until the owner dies. When rates go down, the tax take goes up and everybody wins.
 
T Mc Gibney.

You are probably 100% correct and from your postings you have the (knowledge)
It s well established that the public purse should never bail out private enterprise ,yet we did .
So I ain,t too taken with established policies/actions.

Klaus,
You too could well be correct , we probably pay too much tax.

Problem then is which areas do we hit and cut back ?
I still believe that the fact that the (genuinely) very rich increase their wealth in a recession is a serious flaw in overall taxes ,and this flaw gives everyone too much of an excuse to whinge about taxes.

I suppose its very difficult to manage taxes/expenditure in a volatile world.
 
Gerry Canning said:
T Mc Gibney.

You are probably 100% correct and from your postings you have the (knowledge)
It s well established that the public purse should never bail out private enterprise ,yet we did .
So I ain,t too taken with established policies/actions.
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What's all that about? The State disgracefully bailed out Anglo, AIB and others. I don't understand for a second what that has to do with capital tax policy. And it hasn't been policy for donkeys years to cut capital tax rates in order to generate more revenue. Yet the well established fact I cited in this regard bears any level of scrutiny. If you want to argue to the contrary please do, but not on the basis of utter irrelevancies.
 
Strong possibility of a further reduction in CGT next budget! Not necessarily a bad thing as this could promote more asset sales as per TMcG's commentary. Overall tax take to date this year is well ahead of forcasts. However this can be somewhat tempered by the fact that many of our Public Service Dept's are calling for additional funding. As I would see it our main concern would not necessarily be on Tax intake but rather the return we get from our Public Services who are the main users of the taxation income. Admittedly that may be somewhat off-topic to this post but is certainly relevant to it!
 
44brendan said:
As I would see it our main concern would not necessarily be on Tax intake but rather the return we get from our Public Services who are the main users of the taxation income.
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An excellent point - which of course will be missed all round.
 
T mc Gibney.
I do take on board (utter irrelevancies) . I broadened things too much .
But in my defence ,Taxes charged , broadly follow how government govern or use our taxes and from my laymans view I was lumping things too much together.

So maybe why we pay so much taxes = poor governance ?
 
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