MSF, which represents technical, professional and managerial workers, has called on the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to remove an anomaly in the way the tax system treats profit-sharing schemes in public and private companies

At the publication of the union's pre-Budget submission yesterday, MSF general secretary Mr Jerry Shanahan said employees with publicly quoted companies could offset the acquisition of shares against personal taxation, whereas the money spent by employees buying shares in private companies was fully taxable.