Micheál Martin
Question:144. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Minister for Finance if he will report on his recent announcements on increasing the tax thresholds at the lower and upper rate. [49141/18]
View answerTuesday, 27 November 2018
Questions (144)
Written answers
As I said in my Budget speech, it is the Government’s position that workers start to pay too high a rate of income tax at too low an income level. We cannot hope to remain competitive if someone on a relatively low income and who decides to work a few hours overtime has nearly half that extra money taken in tax.
Therefore, in Budget 2019 I have once again increased the entry point to the higher rate of income tax for all earners by €750, and reduced the 3rd rate of USC from 4.75% to 4.5%.
The impact of these changes is that the top marginal rate on incomes up to €70,000 will be reduced to 48.5% and fewer people on incomes around the national average will have any income subject to the 40% rate of income tax.
By making these changes, the Government has fulfilled our commitment to make steady and sustainable progress in reducing the income tax burden for low and middle income earners by concentrating on increasing the level that workers pay the marginal rate of income tax.
As I have stated on many occasions, we plan to continue this progress in the coming years within available resources, to make sure that Ireland remains competitive.
The extent to which it may be possible to make further progress in this regard will depend on the overall resources available, but as the Taoiseach recently announced, over the next five Budgets we will commit to increasing the point at which people pay the top rate of tax to €50,000 for a single person or €100,000 for a two income couple.