The Greens have called on the Government to limit tax reliefs for the wealthy and end reliefs available to property investors, writes Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter.
The party also wants to levy a special tax on fuel-heavy SUV cars and said a €100 million annual levy on the bank industry in 2003-2005 should be increased.
In a pre-Budget submission published ahead of the Government Book of Estimates tomorrow, the party is seeking increased social welfare payments, and says medical cards should be made available to all children under five.
The Green leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said the seven budgets introduced by Mr Charlie McCreevy had fostered inequity and inequality while environmental measures had been ignored.
Criticising the decision to drop plans for a carbon tax, Mr Sargent said individual taxpayers would have to meet the cost of any fines imposed on Ireland under the Kyoto protocol.
He was unable to quantify the cost of the all the measures contained the party's 14-page document, saying "an awful lot of our costings are works in progress".
The party said the amount of tax relief available to any individual should be capped at €200,000. It also called for a minimum effective tax rate of 20 per cent.
Finance spokesman Mr Dan Boyle said the tax residency laws should be reviewed to ensure that "every penny" earned in Ireland should be taxed in Ireland.
The Greens also said the Government should reverse a decision to extend until 2006 tax breaks on property which had been due to unwind this year. Such reliefs were socially and economically unjustifiable, it said.
Mr Boyle said a site-value tax on commercial property could raise up to €2 billion for the Exchequer, twice the amount raised by commercial rates.
A site-value tax would impose a charge on the rental value of a piece of land if there were no buildings or improvements on it.
The rezoning of land was generating enormous profits for property owners, he said, while local authorities and business were left to bear the cost of providing infrastructure and services on the land.
He said people who did not earn enough to use their full tax credit should be refunded with the credit they do not take up. Such a measure would cost €1.3 billion in a single year, Mr Boyle said.
The party's enterprise spokesman, Mr Eamon Ryan, said the Government should provide more tax breaks for research and development to encourage indigenous firms to develop their export capacity.