Who pays what taxes?

I am tired listening to misleading claims about who pays what taxes so I have compiled a paper summarising the key issues. See attached

Corrections welcome.

Contents

• Aren’t the middle income earners being squeezed?
• But, don’t middle income earners hit the top rate of 52% at €32,800?
• Don’t high earners have lots of tax schemes and loopholes to avoid paying tax?
• But according to the Nevin Institute, those earning €159,000 pay only 24% of their income in tax?
• [FONT=&quot]Haven’t the austerity budgets hit the squeezed middle the hardest? [/FONT]
• Don’t the poor pay 30% of their income in indirect taxes?

Brendan

It appears the reason for the low effective tax rate on low and middle income earners is the very high level (€16,500 for a single person) at which someone begins to pay the standard rate of income tax. Is this one of the highest in the OECD?