Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 332: To ask the Minister for Finance the rate of income tax paid by persons earning in excess of €100,000 per annum and upwards in bands of €20,000 per annum; if he will distinguish between single persons and couples, between PAYE taxpayers and those who are self-employed; and if there were such taxpayers paying 0% and taxpayers paying tax at 20% and below. [25375/04]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the most recent basic data on incomes from which information of the type requested by the Deputy could be derived are in respect of the "short" income tax year of 2001. This was a short transitional tax "year" running from 6 April to 31 December 2001 which preceded the first full calendar tax year, 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2002. The information requested is set out in the following tables. However, because of the Revenue Commissioners' obligation to observe confidentiality with regard to the taxation affairs of individual taxpayers and small groups of taxpayers, the breakdown by income bands requested by the Deputy is not provided in relation to incomes exceeding €1 million due to the small numbers of income earners with incomes in excess of that level.

It should be noted that as PAYE taxpayers were charged tax on their earnings in the period from 6 April to 31 December 2001 and self-employed taxpayers were assessed for tax for the short "year" on 74% of the profits earned in a 12-month accounting period, the income figures will not be directly comparable with those of earlier or later years.

A married couple who have elected or have been deemed to have elected for joint assessment are counted as one tax unit. Married couples and individuals with income chargeable to tax under both schedule E and schedule D have been classified in the tables below by reference to the schedule under which the larger amount of income is taxable.

The designation of a tax rate to an income earner in the tables is based on identifying the top tax rate applying to the taxable income of each earner. To arrive at the figure for taxable income, the gross income is reduced by various relevant deductions and allowances such as capital allowances, losses, allowable expenses and retirement annuities. In some cases, these will reduce the taxable income to nil. Where there is a positive taxable income, it is a feature of the tax credit system that the association between taxable income and the marginal tax rate is made prior to deduction of the personal and other tax credits in arriving at the net tax liability.

Analysis of the data in the tables indicates that of those in the PAYE sector who earned €100,000 or more in the short tax "year", 2001, 0.4% had a nil net income tax liability, 0.4% had a net liability for tax at the standard or marginal relief rates and 99.2% had a liability for tax at the higher rate. Of the self-employed who earned €100,000 or more in the short tax "year" 2001, 2.1% had a nil net income tax liability, 1.2% had a net liability for tax at the standard or marginal relief rates and 96.7% had a liability for tax at the higher rate.