The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, told tax practitioners last night that he was sticking by plans to reduce the number of people paying tax at the top rate just hours after the ESRI urged him to defer tax cuts in the next Budget.
Mr McCreevy is determined to fulfil the commitment that 80 per cent of taxpayers should pay tax at the standard rate. At present, 65 per cent fall into this category.
He made the comments at the publication by the Institute of Taxation in Ireland of its annual range of tax books and electronic material. In total, 24 tax books and six versions of the electronic product TaxFind are available this year, including the most popular publication Taxation Summary, which is available at most bookshops for £20 (€15.7).
The CD Rom and Internet subscription publications run to 170,000 pages and include extra material from the Revenue Commissioners for the first time.
An addition to the institute's range of books will be a commentary on a complex issue, Taxation of Property Transactions which will be available from next month.
