OECD Taxing Wages 2011

The somewhat irritating thing about Taxing Wages is how most of its analysis only goes up to 167% of the average wage – about €65,000 in the case of Ireland. It captures very well how little Ireland taxes income up to that level relative to other EU countries. It avoids communicating how Irish taxation above that income level rises to be comparable with EU norms.

This gives something of a free pass to the folks who want to respond to our relatively low income tax take by making the our extremely progressive narrow based income tax system even more progressive with an even narrower base, rather than broadening the tax base by rebalancing along European lines.