Sir, – Eugene Tannam (Letters, September 8th) looks forward to a Sinn Féin- led government “garnishing the income of the wealthy to restore equity among the Irish people”.
Mr Tannam is, of course, well aware that high earners in Ireland carry one of the highest effective tax burdens in the developed world. This is used not only to pay for public services and to redistribute to those who need support.
It also pays for something which must be unique in first-world countries – the fact that about 40 per cent of income earners in Ireland have no liability to income tax.
He will also be aware that a very small number of multinational businesses, together with their employees and other higher earners, account for a very significant share of Ireland’s tax take.
Louis XIV’s finance minister famously declared that the art of taxation “consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”.
Those who believe that marginal income tax rates of 52 per cent (and 55 per cent for the self-employed) do not show sufficient “solidarity” should make haste slowly. They may find that the garnishing advocated by Mr Tannam does not lead to the anticipated increase in hissing for the very good reason that the golden goose will have left these shores for a more welcoming climate. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.