With the water charges now all but in effect it looks like that the Taoiseach Enda Kenny has his eyes set on being re-elected in just over a years time and it seems that he has prepared a plan to entice voters, as he and ..his party are promising to reduce the top rate of income tax to under 50 per cent if the Government is returned to office after the next election.
Mr Kenny says he is calling for the move as he and his fellow TD’s believe that relatively high rate of personal taxation in the Ireland was something that had to be addressed if the State was to remain internationally competitive. Mr Kenny’s recent move to provide further relief to middle-income earners is one of the strongest signs that he and his heavily criticised Government have got the future elections in sight.
It is believed that as a result of the new measures placed in Budget 2015, the marginal rate of tax, which includes PRSI and the Universal Social Charge, will be cut from 52 to 51 per cent from next year. Mr Kenny made his comments whilst he was speaking at a special Thanksgiving event in Dublin hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce, Mr Kenny told the conference that Budget 2015 was the first year of a multi-year programme “to reduce job-damaging taxes on work”.
Kenny said that the top tax rate would be dropped to a maximum of 50 per cent in next October’s budget. “And we will reduce the rate of income tax further in subsequent budgets if the people decide to re-elect this Government.” The Taoiseach also said that the tax-reducing measures in the budget were specifically targeted at low- and middle-income workers “who pay high taxes at very modest income levels”. He went onto say: “We understand that the high rate of personal taxation in Ireland is something that has to be addressed, and is being addressed, if we are to remain internationally competitive for highly skilled mobile investors and jobs.”
However Mr Kenny also stated that he said “before the budget that the 52 per cent tax rate is anti-employment, anti-enterprise and anti-investment.” Although he did not give any information on how the tax reductions would be funded but claimed that Ireland was now expected to come in as the fastest-growing economy in Europe this year.