Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 9 Mar 1994

Vol. 440 No. 2

Written Answers. - Income Statistics.

Pat Rabbitte

Question:

62 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Finance , in respect of each of the past five years the numbers of PAYE workers, self-employed and farmers with incomes above £25,000 per annum; and the number with income below £25,000 per annum.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

Following is the information requested in so far as it is available:

Gross incomes above and below £25,000 per annum

	Numbers in 000's
	PAYE (excluding proprietary directors)	Full-time farmers	Other self-employed
1989-90
Above £25,000	54.9	4.1	17.7
Below £25,000	871.1	45.7	130.5
1990-91
Above £25,000	63.7	5.0	24.4
Below £25,000	895.3	41.5	128.1
1991-92 (estimated)
Above £25,000	77.9	Not available	35.4
Below £25,000	883.1		169.6
1992-93 (estimated)
Above £25,000	92.6	Not available	39.8
Below £25,000	876.4		175.2
1993-94 (estimated)
Above £25,000	107.3	Not available	44.3
Below £25,000	869.7		171.7

Notes on Table

(1) The numbers provided for other self-employed include proprietary directors. Proprietary directors, while formally taxed under the PAYE system, are akin to the self-employed and should be taken into account when analysing the income distribution of the self-employed sector generally.

(2) The income definition used is "gross income" which is the income from all sources before adjustments are made in respect of capital allowances, qualifying expenditure and personal allowances and reliefs.

(3) As the farming profits of trader-farmers cannot be distinguished from their other income, this group is included with the other self-employed in the table.

(4) The income distribution of full-time farmers is not yet available for years after 1990-91 and these cases are included instead with other self-employed.

The apparent fall in the overall numbers of full-time farmers between 1989-90 and 1990-91 is due to an increase in the number of cases who, because their incomes were too low to attract a tax liability, were notified by inspectors of taxes that tax returns were not required until their position was further reviewed.