IRISH FARMERS paid €173 million in income tax last year or 1.3 per cent of the total income tax take in 2007, an average of €1,895 per farmer.
The figure, which includes yields from special investigations carried out by the Revenue Commissioners, compares to 79.3 per cent from the PAYE sector.
The figures, contained in the Department of Agriculture and Food's annual report, also showed that the tax take from other self-employed people last year was 19.4 per cent.
It said that there were approximately 101,200 farmers on record with the Revenue Commissioners, including almost 13,600 who were assessed periodically.
However, there was no figure available to show how much tax for last year was paid by farmers who were working off the land, as many now do.
In 2004, farmers who had other employment in the PAYE sector paid €232 million in earned income; in 2005 the figure rose to €319 million.
The tax take from farmers' income tax paid on farm profits has been rising slowly since 2004 when the figure was €124 million. It increased to €130 million in 2005 and, by 2006, it had increased to €156 million, a figure which also included yield from special investigations.
Giving the average income tax paid by sector, figures showed that last year PAYE workers paid an average of €4,943, farmers €1,895 and other self-employed €12,927.
In the previous year, PAYE workers paid €4,751, farmers €1,734 and other self-employed €11,850.
The report said that the Central Statistics Office's preliminary estimate of output, input and income in agriculture for 2007 showed a 12.6 per cent increase in operating surplus to €2.6 billion.
This also showed that in 2007 direct payments to farmers totalled over €1.92 billion; when levies were deducted, this figure fell to €1. 86 billion.
Under the Single Farm Payment €1.22 billion was paid out to the 124,500 applicants in 2007. The average payment was €9,871. This payment, which was introduced in 2005 unifying all payments for farm production, was less than €10,000 for 68 per cent of the recipients, or 28 per cent of total payments.
Quoting Teagasc's National Farm Survey, the report said that in 2006, 42 per cent of farm holders had an off-farm occupation, as had 35 per cent of spouses.
It estimated that in 58 per cent of cases, either the holder of the farm and/or the spouse had off-farm employment.
The highest incidence of the farmer having an off-farm job was where he was the owner of a cattle or sheep farm. Spouses had more of a tendency to have off-farm employment on dairy farms.
The report, which was launched by the Minister for Agriculture and Food Brendan Smith, also showed that in 2007 there were 7,376 farmers in receipt of Farm Assist, which is a means-tested social welfare scheme for low-income farm families.