Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 144: To ask the Minister for Finance the ten most popular occupations or professions in respect of PAYE workers earning more that €200,000 per annum. [31235/05]

Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 145: To ask the Minister for Finance the ten most popular occupations or professions in respect of self-employed persons earning more than €200,000 per annum. [31236/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 144 and 145 together.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the latest relevant sector-based information available on employees taxed under the PAYE system and self-employed persons taxed under the self-assessment system is derived from income tax returns filed for the income tax year 2002. It is not possible at present to provide the information sought for a more recent year if the data are to be reasonably accurate.

The sector identifier used on the tax records is based on the four-digit NACE code (Rev. 1), which is an internationally recognised economic activity code system. On this basis, the information requested is as follows:

Employees and self-employed are classified for this purpose according to their main source of income.

The NACE codes are not essential for the assessment and collection of taxes and duties and the correct allocation and maintenance of these codes is subject to the limit of available resources. The economic sector breakdown on Revenue records is based on details recorded using information supplied by income earners or their employers at some point in the past.

Some of that information may have been incorrect or misinterpreted in the first instance, or may not have been subsequently updated as necessary. For these reasons, some of the economic sector codes on tax records are likely to be out of date or inaccurate and the reliability of the figures for the sectors currently provided will be limited to that extent.

A married couple who has elected or who has been deemed to have elected for joint assessment is counted as one tax unit and their incomes are aggregated in the statistics.

Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 146: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of PAYE workers and self employed workers who have incomes of €200,000, €200,000-€400,000, €400,000-€600,000, €600,000-€1,000,000 or over €1 million who paid tax at the 20% rate of tax and paid no income tax at all. [31237/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the most recent basic data on incomes available from which information of the type requested by the Deputy could be derived are in respect of the income tax year 2002 and are set out the following tables. For completeness, the numbers of income earners liable for tax at the top rate of 42% are also included.

A married couple who has elected or has been deemed to have elected for joint assessment is counted as one tax unit. Married couples and individuals with income chargeable to tax under both schedules E and D have been classified in the attached tables 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. The information on incomes is based on income returns on Revenue records at the time the data were compiled for analytical purposes, representing about % of all returns expected.

Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 147: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of PAYE income earners in a number of income thresholds (details supplied) or nearest equivalent in each of the past five years. [31238/05]

Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 148: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of self-employed workers in a number of income thresholds or nearest equivalent in each of the past five years. [31239/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 147 and 148 together.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the information requested by the Deputy is provided in the following tables. For completeness the numbers of income earners with gross income in excess of €1 million have also been included. Self-employed income earners have been distributed over the same income ranges as PAYE earners.

For the tax years 2001 and 2002, the numbers of income earners at all income levels in the tables are best estimates based on data from comple ted end-of-year returns but adjusted to take account of returns which had not been received when the data were compiled. For later years, the numbers of earners in the various ranges of income are based on the adjusted data for 2002 projected forward in accordance with macro-economic data relating to actual and expected growth in wages and employment.

It should be noted that the income ranges shown in the above tables relate to gross income. Gross income is income prior to deductions for capital allowances, interest paid, losses, allowable expenses, retirement annuities, etc. It is income after the deduction of superannuation contributions by employees but not by the self-employed, and it includes income of individuals whose total income falls below the exemption limits. It does not include certain other income which is not income for tax purposes or is exempt from tax, such as profits or gains from stallion fees, profits from commercial forestry and certain income from patent royalties, certain investment income arising from personal injuries, child benefit, maternity benefit and unemployment assistance paid by the Department of Social and Family Affairs, certain earnings of writers, composers and artists, bonuses or interest paid under instalment savings schemes operated by An Post, interest on certain Government securities, certain foreign pensions which are exempt from tax in the foreign paying country, portions of certain lump sums received by employees on cessation of their employment, statutory redundancy payments and certain military pensions.

Gross income does not include or does not fully include other income sources such as interest income that does not need to be declared or is not recorded, but from which tax has been deducted; unemployment benefit and disability benefit — non-recording of non-taxable amounts and of amounts taxed by restriction of repayments or indirectly through employers in the PAYE system; and the incomes of certain self-employed persons, including some farmers, as well as some individuals in receipt of pensions, who are not processed annually on tax records because their incomes are below the income tax thresholds.

A married couple who has elected or has deemed to have elected for joint assessment is counted as one tax unit. The figures for the years 2002, 2003 and 2004 have been revised from those quoted in the reply to the Deputy's Questions Nos. 164 to 167 of 3 November 2004, to take account of more up-to-date base information and revised macro-economic projections of income levels and number at work which have become available. The figures for 2003 onwards are projected estimates and may be subject to further revision.