Income tax and earnings

Sir, – Pat O’Brien (Letters, September 9th) states that “about 40 per cent of income earners in Ireland have no liability to income tax”. What Mr O’Brien does not mention is that the 40 per cent of income earners with no income tax liability account for a very low percentage of total income.

Reading from Revenue statistics for the year 2018, out of approximately €100 billion in income earned, those with no liability accounted for about €8 billion of that income. Thus, for 2018, 35 per cent of income earners accounted for as little as 8 per cent of total income. By any standards, this shows a country with an income distribution significantly skewed towards low earners.

A fairer approach for society would be to collect more from capital taxes, from property taxes, and in particular from capital acquisition taxes, which are risibly low due to a plethora of exemptions.

Fairness is an important component of a decent society. – Yours, etc,