asked the Minister for Finance the total amount contributed by PAYE taxpayers at the latest available date; and the percentage this represents of the total income tax revenue.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - PAYE
3.
The latest available figures in this matter relate to the first nine months of 1977. In that period the net receipt of PAYE was £329.3 million which represents 86.3 per cent of the net receipt of income tax in that period.
Is the Minister aware that this is a considerable increase even on the year before which was only 82 per cent and which shows that the PAYE workers are contributing most to our income tax?
The figures for 1976 are slightly complicated because the public service would not have been fully included in the PAYE figures. They are not strictly comparable. But it is true, I think, that the PAYE contributors are paying a bigger share than are others. But the share may not be quite so much out of line perhaps as is generally thought. As I have indicated in those figures, which are for the first nine months of 1977, the proportion of PAYE tax received was 86.3 per cent. For 1976 the proportion of national income available to people in receipt of wages, salaries and pensions was nearly 70 per cent so while it is out of line it may not be as much out of line as people think.
Would the Minister not agree that there is a need now for us to start making comparisons with other EEC countries as to the proportion of the gross amount contributed by PAYE workers? Even allowing for the fact that we have so many self-employed people in the country would the Minister not agree that that figure is very high? We have more people self-employed here percentagewise than have other countries.
I appreciate the Deputy's concern but I would warn against an unduly close comparison with other EEC countries where the situation is frequently different, particularly in relation to the amount of contribution to social welfare that has to be made by workers which is way out of line with that in this country.