Sir, - There have been two interesting revelations over the past three weeks which clearly show the contrasting treatment of citizens in this state depending on wealth and status.
In a recent reply in Dail Eireann, the Minister for Finance showed that a married person on £167.50 per week with one child would be £10 worse off if his boss gave him a £20 pay rise. The reason for this appalling anomaly is that the State subsidises employers who pay their workers low wages with moneys collected from the PAYE through schemes such as FIS, fuel and rent subsidies. It also levies the low paid workers' PAYE and PRSI at lower thresholds to maintain them in this bind.
If the low paid worker joined a Union and demanded a 12 per cent rise he/she would end up 10 per cent worse off. The reason for this appalling vista is our PAYE system. The average PAYE worker pays £4,087 per year to the Government, four times that of a farmer and substantially more than the self-employed. Why you may ask? The answer is simple. Before PAYE workers set sight on their earned income the taxman takes his cut. If you want an allowance you must prove your right to it.
In contrast with the worker on £4.30 an hour, who has to maintain a child and keep a home, the revelations at the Dunne Tribunal clearly show that many in the self-employed or non-PAYE sector can write their own cheques or bank drafts (as the case may be) and avoid with immunity their tax liability. The evidence at both the corporate and sell-employed level of tax avoidance scams shows the reality of our tax gathering system. That is, there is evidently "one law for the rich and one law for the PAYE worker".
What is clear from Government information, is that if you are a PAYE worker relying solely on a wage that you will be "over-Dunne" by the State. Should you be lucky enough to be a Chief Executive or self-employed it is "well-Dunne" according to the State, unless of course you "over-do it", in political generosity. and get caught! Yours, etc.
Straffan,
Co. Kildare.