Tax profile for September yielded another sign of continued shift in tax burden onto the shoulders of ordinary households, courtesy of:
- Continued underperformance in corporate tax returns despite booming exports activity
- Continued graft of household budgets under the USC and levies.
Overall tax burden in Q3 2011 has shifted as follows:
- Q2 2011 share of Income tax receipts in total receipts was 39.52%. Q3 2011 share of Income tax receipts in total receipts was 38.40% against Q3 2010 share of 33.20% and Q3 2007 share of 28.04%
- Q2 2011 share of VAT receipts in total receipts was 33.22%. Q3 2011 share of VAT receipts in total receipts was 33.17% against Q3 2010 share of 36.81% and Q3 2007 share of 37.41%
- Q2 2011 share of Corporation tax receipts in total receipts was 9.32%. Q3 2011 share of Corporation tax receipts in total receipts was 8.52% against Q3 2010 share of 9.86% and Q3 2007 share of 7.39%
- Q2 2011 share of Excise receipts in total receipts was 14.4%. Q3 2011 share of Excise receipts in total receipts was 13.4% against Q3 2010 share of 14.77% and Q3 2007 share of 13.79%
- Stamps, CGT and CAT combined share in Q2 2011 was 2.64% against Q3 2011 share of 5.67% and 4.73% in Q3 2010 and 12.67% in Q3 2007.
Charts to illustrate:
We have gradually lost all perspective on this corporation tax issue. It has acquired a totemic status, as the only way any of us will keep in employment.
ReplyDeleteHowever, corporation tax is just another tax and it can be raised or lowered as policy demands. Of course business prefers things as they are -who wants to pay more tax?
http://outside-of-the-walls.blogspot.com/2011/07/private-sector-deleveraging-necessary.html
I wrote on this topic a few weeks back. At that time, I was struck with how much of the deleveraging in ireland had been done by business, and how little had been done by households. The prime culprit (IMO) is the tax structure which weighs heavily on households while making inadequate demands of business.
I am no tax-and-spend merchant, but based on the figures in my post of a few months ago, and Constantin's post today, it seems obvious to me that we have an unhealthy focus on not taxing business, regardless of what impact it has on households.
We need to rebalance a bit, lighten up on households and tighten up on business -not to fundamentally change our tax model, but just to make it a bit more balanced.