The more you earn the less you pay.

Sleepy

My problem is less my own conditions than the fact I'm subsidising people who earn almost ten times my salary. If the top earners in the country were meeting their civic duties, it should in theory be possible to knock a percentage off the rest of our income taxes, or maybe shock horror, invest in state services.

I think it's safe to say that in modern society it is accepted that taxes should be progressive: i.e. you should pay according to your ability to. How people with these massive salaries can stick two fingers up at the rest of us so easily really hits a nerve with me. It's not like the investments they're making to get these tax breaks are unprofitable, I'd wager most of them would invest in these areas anyway. It's not as if the country is that short of investors after our recent economic past.

Under no circumstances should anyone be given tax breaks to purchase property to let, build houses in already over-developed areas, breed racehorses, build private hospitals that will only practice medecine "in accordance with catholic teachings", create a company that is putting the national grid under severe pressure or one that subsidizes business's transport costs (Airtricity or Aer Arran).

Yes, our low levels of corporation tax should be a good thing but if you don't allow the wealth generated by the foreign investment to have a trickledown effect to the poorer sections of the community, what's the point?

Sleepy

Sleepy wrote:

My problem is less my own conditions than the fact I'm subsidising people who earn almost ten times my salary.

But are you though?
Ponder this: if the government had to invest in housing in urban renewal areas, your tax euro's would be spent there, not alone part paying for the house but subsidising the people living there as no doubt we would be talking about social housing.
Instead someone investing in a sectioned house is saving you money(or rather the percentage of what you pay in taxes that would be spent)
If it's a holiday home, they're promoting a bigger contribution per house to indirect taxes probably than you on your own could spend .
Effectively all the scheme is doing is giving the person more say in where money that would be collected as tax is spent and encouraging the entire taxable sum to be spent in this non frivolous way rather than just a percentage of it.

Under no circumstances should anyone be given tax breaks to purchase property to let, build houses in already over-developed areas, breed racehorses, build private hospitals that will only practice medecine "in accordance with catholic teachings", create a company that is putting the national grid under severe pressure or one that subsidizes business's transport costs (Airtricity or Aer Arran).

That amounts to a fairly strong leftwing manifesto there.
By the way the state through your tax Euro's already supports protestant ethos schools and Protestant ethos hospitals(via the old Adelade's contribution to the Tallaght hospital) so you'd want to build opposition to that into your manifesto too , to be fair

Yes, our low levels of corporation tax should be a good thing but if you don't allow the wealth generated by the foreign investment to have a trickledown effect to the poorer sections of the community, what's the point?

You appear to be advocating socialism, which is fine.There is a caveat though and thats the lads spending hundreds of euros this past long w/end in the pubs and clubs around the country, theres the trickle down, it's there if you open your eyes to it.
The "party-party" society is making a choice, booze and entertainment and lifestyle is winning out generally over thrift and saving.