Do high marginal income tax rates discourage full time skilled labour participation in the workforce?

It was tongue in cheek sorry. I was just making the point that people often say ‘I lose half my salary to the government’ when they don’t, a single person needs to be on €275k+ before they’re actually paying an effective tax rate of 50%. On €38k a year you’re paying 18c out of every €1 in tax.

That is true......but.............people think at the margin.

People think: if I go for progression / promotion, if I do overtime, if I do an extra shift, if I apply to be supervisor, what income tax will I pay on the extra income?

The 48.5%% marginal tax rate (MTR) on incomes from approx 36/37k onwards is crazy.

The entry point is way too low.
 
Would tax reductions not have the effect of accelerating inflation even further? Or is the proposal to increase the higher rate, so tax take is either neutral or higher but low-mid income households are sheltered somewhat?
That would be one of the results, 2 people earning €45k each are really being taxed at too high a level, 90k would in normal functioning economies would be sufficient to live a comfortable life, of course this is Ireland where any type expectation of actually getting anything back for your tax is an unrealistic expectation.

I personally don't think having 3 tiers of taxation wouldn't be as inflationary as I would imagine that people say in the 40-70k bracket would probably increase savings, but I'm not an economist so I might be way off base.
 
My suggestion is to reduce the MTR faced by people on 35-50k approx, but not necessarily to reduce effective tax rates.

This means other things would have to change, e.g. tax credits.
 
Would tax reductions not have the effect of accelerating inflation even further? Or is the proposal to increase the higher rate, so tax take is either neutral or higher but low-mid income households are sheltered somewhat?
To tame wage increases the government probably needs to reduce tax in some form and at a level that is noticeable.

Whilst sinn fein will complain that the lower paid are not benefiting, I'd argue that it is an incentive to work more / progress to have a middle tax rate that doesn't over penalise someone that earns a little over the tax band limit.
 
A gp has to run their office out of that money too
That's take home pay and it's a very conservative estimate. I used to be married to a GP. She worked full time though and has a large successful practice. Her income is a multiple of the above figure.
- definitely a disincentive my business students are shocked that their teachers only get 0.40c out of every €1 once the pension leavy is added in at the higher tax rate -
You'd have to question why they are doing business if they don't know that. You can console them with the actual value of the pension and what the teacher would actually have to contribute to fund it themselves (much like the standard old age pension is massively under funded by private sector employees).

SEC can’t get staff to superintend or correct exams because of it also and contributes to being unable afford Life in Dublin too - conditions may also be a factor but definitely part of the reason there is a huge shortage in Dublin and many gone to Dubai etc
Yep, it's all part of the same problem. What amazing is that there's actually a net social transfer to middle income households, so if they are squeezed it's not because of the tax they are paying.
Something is structurally broken.
 
Find me the teacher who is paid €275,000 we’re far from Robert watt - you wouldnt have a recruitment crisis then
There's no recruitment crisis in teaching. There is in construction but not in teaching.
 
That would be one of the results, 2 people earning €45k each are really being taxed at too high a level, 90k would in normal functioning economies would be sufficient to live a comfortable life,
I think everyone should pay some tax. Removing low earners from PAYE is fair enough but they should be paying social insurance and USC.
of course this is Ireland where any type expectation of actually getting anything back for your tax is an unrealistic expectation.
Only the top 30% of earners are net contributors. Everyone else gets more back than they put in. It costs €7-€8k a year to educate each child. A couple with 3 children has to earn a lot before they pay €21-€24k a year in taxes and that before all the other stuff we all get (when we flush the toilet our poo goes away etc).
I personally don't think having 3 tiers of taxation wouldn't be as inflationary as I would imagine that people say in the 40-70k bracket would probably increase savings, but I'm not an economist so I might be way off base.
The problem is a combination of high marginal rates of income tax and a doubling of the cost/value of Capital items over the last 12 years. Basically high mortgages and rents. We've doubled the amount of money in the world but wages have gone up by less than 10% so the value of Labour relative to Capital has halved. In effect we've seen the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the world from young people to older people by borrowing money and giving it to old people and foisting the debt onto young people. That's at the root of it all. I've no idea how to fix it.
 
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Anecdotally I know a high number of skilled people who choose to work part time rather than fulltime.


A GP working morning only will earn €80-€100k a year. If they work a full day they'll earn an extra €80-€100k a year but will net €40-€50k a year. If they have 2 children their childcare costs will be around €20k a year. Why would they bother working full time?
I really don't see the problem here. In a rich country people are able to earn enough to not have to work full time. They are prioritizing living their lives over chasing extra money. Is that not a good thing?
 
I really don't see the problem here. In a rich country people are able to earn enough to not have to work full time. They are prioritizing living their lives over chasing extra money. Is that not a good thing?
It is for the doctor but the cost to the State of educating them has effectively doubled and, despite having very well paid doctors and the most doctors trained per capita of any country in the world, we still seem to have a shortage of full time equivalent doctors. How I know that many of them go home after we train them and a small amount emigrate but most stay here and of that cohort a large proportion who become GP's choose to work part time.
That's fine for the individual but it's not good for the country.
 
GP's are a special case and mainly not tax related. GP as a profession is targeted, at least partially, by students who see it as as a high paid, part time job. Changing the tax rate won't change their minds. If you create a third lower rate of tax (say between 35-80k) then for a part time GP it'll just make it even easier to support their lifestyle.

I'd fully agree in general though our tax rates are a problem - it makes it easy to justify deliberately stepping down in income. Most younger GPs I know never intended working 40 hours weeks in the first place.
 
GP's are a special case and mainly not tax related. GP as a profession is targeted, at least partially, by students who see it as as a high paid, part time job. Changing the tax rate won't change their minds. If you create a third lower rate of tax (say between 35-80k) then for a part time GP it'll just make it even easier to support their lifestyle.

I'd fully agree in general though our tax rates are a problem - it makes it easy to justify deliberately stepping down in income. Most younger GPs I know never intended working 40 hours weeks in the first place.
The people of Ireland spend around a third of a million Euro training a GP. If the majority are now working part time then the cost to train a fulltime equivalent is over a half a million euro. That's a significant additional cost to the State. Should we require a minimum number of hours to qualify for a GMS contract? At the moment there is no such requirement and their contract gives them plenty of scope to fiddle the system.
 
To tame wage increases the government probably needs to reduce tax in some form and at a level that is noticeable.
The biggest own goal the government made regarding inflation was introducing minimum unit pricing in January , their timing couldn't have been worse and they admitted that this measure alone contributed significantly to the inflation rate in the first quarter.
Even if they couldn't withstand the pressure from specisl interest groups to introduce it they could of at least moderated the minimum unit price that it was set at, 75c rather than 100c per 100g of alcohol would have been tolerable
 
The biggest own goal the government made regarding inflation was introducing minimum unit pricing in January , their timing couldn't have been worse and they admitted that this measure alone contributed significantly to the inflation rate in the first quarter.
Even if they couldn't withstand the pressure from specisl interest groups to introduce it they could of at least moderated the minimum unit price that it was set at, 75c rather than 100c per 100g of alcohol would have been tolerable
The carbon tax is infinitely worse. As bad as they are, at least alcohol price hikes don't directly drive up the prices of everything else.
 
Is there not a converse argument here, namely that the tax system in Ireland is flexible enough to allow many people return to work part time when perhaps the alternative might be not to work at all?
 
Is there not a converse argument here, namely that the tax system in Ireland is flexible enough to allow many people return to work part time when perhaps the alternative might be not to work at all?
Not really. We are making additional economic activity by people who are valuable to the economy and to society unattractive due to high marginal tax rates, coupled with high childcare costs.
 
The carbon tax is infinitely worse. As bad as they are, at least alcohol price hikes don't directly drive up the prices of everything else.
Is that not the point. Drive less consumption? And then the tax from necessary consumption is used for green initiatives.
 
Is that not the point. Drive less consumption? And then the tax from necessary consumption is used for green initiatives.
If the point of the carbon tax is to inflate the price of foodstuffs and other essentials, that's one they've been keeping quiet for a long time.
 
Not really. We are making additional economic activity by people who are valuable to the economy and to society unattractive due to high marginal tax rates, coupled with high childcare costs.
And yet, the OECD has us below the average for marginal tax rates.

For anyone I know who has returned to the workplace after having children, the tax rate is not the key issue. It's a host of other factors
  • the cost of child minding as you called out,
  • the inflexibility of the school system ("training days" for teachers during the school term as an example"),
  • the inability, in many cases, to live close to where you work, look at the rush hour into Dublin or Cork
 
If the point of the carbon tax is to inflate the price of foodstuffs and other essentials, that's one they've been keeping quiet for a long time.
They would also be working in tandem with putin who is accomplishing the same thing raising the price of foodstuffs and other essentials to hurt the west
 
And yet, the OECD has us below the average for marginal tax rates.

For anyone I know who has returned to the workplace after having children, the tax rate is not the key issue. It's a host of other factors
  • the cost of child minding as you called out,
  • the inflexibility of the school system ("training days" for teachers during the school term as an example"),
  • the inability, in many cases, to live close to where you work, look at the rush hour into Dublin or Cork
Schools are in the business of education, not of child minding.
 
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