> The personal tax rate is banded, so only your income _above_ a certain amount is taxed at [...]
Same for the US. Isn't every country like that? The US's highest federal income tax rate is 37%, and that applies to income over $578,125 for single people and $693,750 for married couples. This isn't counting state taxes (0-12.3% depending on the state) and FICA taxes (2.35% at that income level).
So in some states you do match the Irish rates? There's no extra layers like state or city tax in Ireland for individuals, local government is funded by national government, business rates, and sometimes specific charged for services (e.g. bin collection, though private options exist too)
In no states do we hit the Irish rates on your marginal dollar for someone whose taxable income is say € 75000. ( = $82000 )
In Ireland your next euro would be taxed at 52% but in say, NYC which may have the highest burden since it has a rare local income tax:
Using single figures, married is different:
Federal tax -> falls into the 22% bracket (covers taxable income $41,776 to $89,075)
State tax -> 6.25% bracket
Local tax -> 3.819% bracket
Obviously we have the same marginal system you do, so I'm only talking about how much of your "next dollar" is taxed but that adds up to just over 32%.
On the other hand, health insurance. One guess from Google says "a Silver tier plan in New York costs $710 monthly" so using that 710 x 12 = 8,520 a year, or about 10% of your income (note: since we deduct health premiums off your income, it would actually effectively reduce your taxable income and rejigger those tax brackets). And our property tax can be staggering in high-cost areas, and is obviously passed on even to renters. Mine is in the neighborhood of $8,500 a year.
Also does Ireland have a "standard deduction"? This is just an amount that everybody gets to subtract before even using the brackets to compute, so our brackets don't really start taxing at dollar #1 like they appear to.
Anyway, it's all ridiculous, I know! But yeah, it looks like your "€75000 earner" isn't all that disadvantaged compared to here. Your €200000 earner definitely is, though! :D
> And our property tax can be staggering in high-cost areas, and is obviously passed on even to renters. Mine is in the neighborhood of $8,500 a year.
The high band of property tax is €300/yr and I've never heard it passed on to renters here.
> Also does Ireland have a "standard deduction"? This is just an amount that everybody gets to subtract before even using the brackets to compute, so our brackets don't really start taxing at dollar #1 like they appear to.
Yes, there's a minimum standard deduction of €3550 (€1775 for single person, plus €1775 for being an employee), that is effectively deducted from the tax bill at the final step, and others may replace these with larger amounts for different categories of workers, life circumstances on top of that.
In theory yes, but this tax was introduced in recent memory and the rate of rent increases that year was not noticeably different to the rate of rent increases in other years, as the prices are limited (well "limited") by the ability of tenants to pay, rather than being driven by costs. And the most expensive areas have rent control anyway.
Same for the US. Isn't every country like that? The US's highest federal income tax rate is 37%, and that applies to income over $578,125 for single people and $693,750 for married couples. This isn't counting state taxes (0-12.3% depending on the state) and FICA taxes (2.35% at that income level).