Just as Ireland is reliant on tax from a few big multinationals, it also needs the income tax from their employees and from the highly paid jobs supported elsewhere by the activities of big tech and big pharma. Photograph: Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images
Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar was fond of championing the people who got up early in the morning – the hard-working middle classes he saw as the Fine Gael heartland. But talk about relieving the income tax burden on this group – and even the delusional concept of abolishing the USC – seems a long way off now. This is because Budget 2026 has one important message. In the mixture of pure chaos and urgent priorities that is the Irish budget process, personal taxpayers are now at the back of the queue.
In the years ahead, more tax is going to be needed and it is a fair bet that income taxpayers will keep picking up the tab, including the middle-earning mugs and their quietly prosperous colleagues, the six-figure earner
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