The debate on taxation policy has heated up in recent days. Readers might find KPMG’s Income Tax and Social Security Rate Survey 2010 of interest. It is available for free download here. The Economist has a piece on the survey, but does not include Ireland in its main comparison figure for the effective tax rate at an income of USD 100,000 (gross). The effective rate for Ireland is 30.3 percent, which puts us in the middle of the pack (pages 11 & 12).
Some other tables and figures in the survey show that we should not exaggerate the extent to which Ireland is a low tax country for middle to higher earners. See the table for the highest rate of income tax (2003-2010) on pages 9 & 10; and also the figure showing the US dollar income at which the highest rate kicks in on page 28. I’m sure our tax experts will have some quibbles with the calculations. But it does help to put tax rates for higher earners in a useful comparative context.