Two members of the Commission on Taxation objected to recommendations it made and submitted letters outlining their objections that were published in its 500-page report.
Businesswoman Rena Maycock did not agree with the commission’s recommendation that PRSI be raised for the self-employed and company owner-directors to a higher employer rate.
Speaking after the launch of the commission’s report by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, Ms Maycock told The Irish Times that the self-employed have no legal entitlements to sick pay, minimum wages or annual leave “so you can never fully equalise the two forms of labour”.
“From a risk perspective, there is no other recognition by the State on the self-employed or the proprietary directors for the risks that they take in creating employment for themselves and for others. That is why I just couldn’t sign up to that,” she said.
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[ Taxes on wealth and property must be increased, says Commission on TaxationOpens in new window ]
Dr Tom McDonnell, a co-director of the Nevin Economic Research Institute and a nominee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to the commission, objected to recommendations that endorsed and supported low tax rates for businesses and high-earning individuals.
“I do endorse the vast majority of the report and I would like to emphasise that but ultimately I felt that the balance was unfairly skewed in favour of enterprise over the rest of society,” he said.
He said he had concerns about recommendations that would allow “the continuation of very unfair tax breaks for extremely high earners”.
“In the context of a report, which is understandably, given the demographic pressures, going to push up taxes on essentially everybody, the fact that some extremely well-heeled cohorts come out very well sat not too well with me,” he said.
Ms Maycock said the commission members came from “different sectors and ways of life” and her job was to argue for self-employed people and how they should be treated in taxation.
[ Cliff Taylor: Tax report conclusions present Paschal Donohoe with a challengeOpens in new window ]
“It is very difficult to do that with people who have been employees all their lives, who have never had that sleepless night; they have never had to worry about not being able to pay their bills or their mortgages because they have got that security,” she said.
There were other recommendations in the report that she fundamentally disagreed with, but she was willing to accept them, she said.
She agreed that tax revenues needed to be increased for public services for an ageing population and that young people would have to provide the taxes in 15 or 20 years’ time but that they also needed a reason to stay in Ireland in order to contribute income tax and PAYE.
“Nothing else really irked me so much. Nothing was so unfair that I couldn’t sign up to,” she said.
