Professor Niamh Moloney:

Our terms of reference require us to stand back and examine the overall tax system. One of our terms of reference requires us to consider the balance of taxation in respect of earned income, consumption and wealth. The question of how the various bases work together forms a logical part of any stand-back analysis of a tax system. One of the points that is important when examining a tax system as a whole concerns all the various sources of income, wealth and consumption. There are different ways of thinking about taxes on sources of wealth, such as property tax, capital gains tax, capital acquisitions tax and DIRT. It is a matter of thinking about the various sources through which tax operates, about whether taxes are operating effectively as possible and about whether the right levers are being pulled in the right place, having learned from international experience. There are very big debates internationally on all this right now. We will absolutely be taking seriously the big questions on how tax systems should be designed.