ACCORDING to Ruairi Quinn's Departmental estimates, Flavia Lyons should be £147-a-year better off after his latest Budget changes. She is a single PAYE employee, who earns £25,000 a year.
Mr Quinn's estimate, included in the main Budget points, is based on the decrease in her tax and PRSI liability, thanks to the widening of exemption bands. Without taking into account any of the other factors, she should be 1 per cent a year better off, according to the Department.
However, as she is a mortgage holder she will be hit by the cut in this relief now underway for thee years. Once the decrease in her mortgage interest relief is taken into account her gains work out at around £93, or less than £1.80 a week. "As a single person I'm paying maximum tax. I'm hit for everything. The only thing you can do as a single person is get some mortgage interest relief."
She is set to lose £208 of her mortgage interest relief allowance along with her £140 PRSI allowance. At her 48 per cent tax rate, these losses work out at around £167. She gains £72 on the increase in personal allowances and a further £105 from the increase in the 27 per cent tax band. The addition of £30 to the PRSI exemption level brings a further saving of £83, giving her total gains of around £260.
She does not think she will benefit from the extension of benefit in kind relief for company car drivers, as she already claims at quite a high mileage rate of 25,000 miles a year.
"It's the middle-of-the-road person who doesn't get anything much from the Budget. If you're not low paid, you're kind of caught in the middle and there's no incentive to work harder."
Flavia is a former nurse, who joined Smith and Nephew seven years ago as a sales rep. She now works as trauma product specialist and has been promoted and given pay rises as her responsibilities increased.
"I don't think the Budget has really affected me. They've juggled our figures, robbing Peter to pay Paul. As single people, our one little thing was the mortgage relief and that's being taken from us.