So, John McCain Wants Irish Taxes…
Tonight in the debate John McCain said we should tax our businesses more like they do in Ireland. Hey, I love Ireland! My boyfriend is Irish!
He said they tax businesses at 11% (OK, so it is actually 12.5%…who is counting?). That’s awesome. Ireland sounds great for my business. Sign me up. I mean, a country with less than 4.5 million people must have an economy totally comparable to ours (population 305,266,894). I bet the rest of their tax structure is right up our alley:
Irish income taxes range from 20% to 41%. Ours maxes out at 35%. (You have to automatically pay 41% on ANYTHING you make over 34,000 Euros in Ireland. That includes if you do it on two incomes.) Americans would love that.
Oh, and you know how we have to pay sales tax on things. Here in New York state and local sales taxes range from 7% to 9.5%. What a nightmare!!! Ireland is part of, you know…Europe. They’ve got a VAT of 21% on cars, gas (sorry, petrol), booze, soda, computers (that and the Euro why the Apple store is always filled with Europeans) and business charges. Fortunately, there is only a 13.5% tax on shit like electricity, fuel to heat your home, restaurants, newspapers, hotels and car seats (WTF…you can’t even drive home from the hospital without one here).
Listen, I’m not disparaging Ireland or their tax system. There is something to be said for a system that provides health coverage for all of its citizens and roads in remote parts of the country. All I’m saying is it is totally dishonest and disingenuous to cite a country’s business tax structure IN ISOLATION from the rest of their tax code…especially when that country bares very little resemblance to ours AND you are doing it just to make your own tax proposals seem reasonable.
3 years ago • 0 notes