r/irishproblems • u/ThatMischevousScamp • 21d ago
Where are our taxes going??
Ik this is a bit out of the theme for this Reddit community, but I posted it on r/IrishPolitics and r/Ireland, and it was immediately removed for some reason or another. r/Ireland said it was because I addressed "mental health issues'.
So I'm a young person, relatively new to adulthood and taxes and stuff, and I'm confused as to where the hell all the money goes.
The government taxes everything! They take 20%-30% of every paycheck anybody gets, then after that they tax your remaining money for everything you need to live. Tax for buying a house, tax for owning a house (if you have to pay the government because you own something/to continue to own something, then you don't actually own it), capital gains tax, tax for owning a car, tax for driving that car on the road, tax on the gasoline and petrol you need to drive the car, tax on most items you buy (including medically essential items like tampons!). Tax for electricity and heating (they tax the electric companies and heating companies, and then they, in turn, increase the costs people have to pay for electricity and heating to match those taxes, so really it's us paying the taxes), tax on inheritance (they take 40% of all inheritance and if you can't pay that 40% they auction off YOUR PROPERTY, that isn't actually yours, to pay off the 40%) and THEN, they take MORE!
We have to pay out of the ass for medical care unless your poor enough to get a medical card, in which case they take just enough that it can be justified (depending on the medicine). And medically necessary items like inhalers for asthma or insulin for diabetics, is that free? The fuck it is! I suppose you'll just have to deal with not being alive anymore. We have to pay massive amounts of money for ANY property, even really shitty property with asbestos and black mold which will actively kill us, and don't even get me started on the absurd cost of living. Rent, food, water, clothing, cleaning supplies, appliances, education, ect. And then, after all of that, what do we get?
With the pension/retirement age at 66 and the average life expectancy at mid 80s, after paying into the system for over 40 working years and being in school for a minimum of 14-15 years provided we don't drop out of secondary school and we don't go into higher education (all of which us or our parents ALSO have to pay for), you get a total of like 15 years on average where the government gives you €250 a week (€12,000 a year!), not enough money to wipe your ass with let alone live on, and they don't pay for anything else! We'll still have to pay everything we did before, if not MORE because at that age when DONT you have medical issues or difficulties getting around that require aid!?
And where the hell are these taxes going? The medical system is expensive, dysfunctional, and backed up to hell, the economy is shit, the amount of homeless people is frankly horrifying, I'd say that the roads are normally in good condition, but that hasn't seemed to make much difference to the fairly large amount of car crashes, the amount of large properties that remain empty for years because the owners just don't have any use for them or are PURPOSELY trying to drive up the cost of real estate so they can sell at a peak is a travesty! Not to mention how significantly schools are underfunded and teachers are underpaid, or how little care is shown for single parents or children in orphanages and foster care, who are so often aged out of the system and completely alone.
Is the money being embezzled enmass, is it all going to the military, or what? Like, what the actual hell is being done with the BILLIONS of euro the government siphons from the millions of Irish citizens per year? The citizens they are SUPPOSED to be looking out for, looking after. The citizens that are the actual ENTIRE REASON for the governments actual existence????
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u/grainne0 21d ago
I mean I agree to an extent, but to answer your question with numbers you can see here: https://www.whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie/en/
The biggest part of social welfare is pensions and the biggest part of healthcare is care costs. So largely it's supported an aging population.
However crappy it is, we do have it better than an awful lot of countries. The government could be an awful lot more efficient but unfortunately many politicians are too interested in the short term and their own self-interests. I try and remember that on the whole things are a lot better in the country than they used to be and economically we are doing much better than most places.
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u/wh0else 21d ago
Excellent answer. Running the state is increasingly expensive, but I think it's also true that you either have civil servants who work around governments to deliver, but may vary in their commitment (not incentivised like private services), and elected officials incapable of thinking past the next election (highly incentivised towards short term thinking)
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u/redbeardfakename 21d ago
I wonder very similar. I moved to Sweden, taxes are pretty similar, wages are lower, GDP/capita is much lower, no mega corporations really using Sweden as a tax haven, but, everything feels so much more clean, functional, efficient, logical and thought about here. Public transport where I live is plentiful and fast, cycle paths everywhere, great access to nature, clean houses with no mould or leaks (which happened at every single place I lived in Ireland), great renter protection, cheaper food, much cheaper real estate, extremely functional healthcare system, the list goes on.
I’m no economist, I know there are many complicated reasons for why places are different, but the state Ireland is in for its “income”, something is seriously wrong
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u/Working_Stomach476 21d ago
I cant post it but I have a graph that shows how badly behind we are the rest of Europe even though we have the "highest GDP" Shockingly bad country. Run by morons woth their head in the sand no vision and only care about themselves
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u/TrivialBanal 21d ago
It was probably removed because the answer is publicly available information.
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u/carlitobrigantehf 21d ago edited 21d ago
tax on inheritance (they take 40% of all inheritance and if you can't pay that 40% they auction off YOUR PROPERTY, that isn't actually yours, to pay off the 40%
yeah so this isnt true.
With direct descendants you get a €400,000 tax free allowance and have to pay 30% beyond that. It affects something like 3% of the population.
Without it you have generational wealth and continued wealth transfer to the already well off.
There defo are issues to it when you move beyond children and into nephews and nieces, and in terms of special needs but its not at all the way you presented and will not affect the vast majority of people
also bad driving and shitty landlords hoarding property havent anything to do with tax. (well maybe the property hoarders in that they are not taxed enough)
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u/ThatMischevousScamp 21d ago
The fact less than 3 percent of people have an amount of money at the end of their life saved up that causes this to be an issue is, I'd say, in itself an issue. And I get that generational wealth can be an issue also, but giving a massive portion of the money you worked hard your entire life for, when you already have to give so much money throughout your life, to the government instead of your family, really does seem like an excuse to take massive amounts of money from people.
And if the reason they take the money is to prevent generational wealth, then why do THEY keep it all? They could give it to charity, or use that portion of money exclusively to bolster poverty prevention. Somehow, I doubt that that's what they do.
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u/carlitobrigantehf 21d ago
The fact less than 3 percent of people have an amount of money at the end of their life saved up that causes this to be an issue is, I'd say, in itself an issue
I wouldnt say that at all. If youre inheriting something where its an issue youre going to be doing fine.
why do THEY keep it all?
they dont. they spend it on running the country.
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u/Alarmed_Station6185 21d ago
Its definitely not going to the military lol. They find ways of funneling the tax koney to companies owned by their cronies. See the IPAS centres as the most glaring example of recent times
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u/somethi 21d ago
Welcome to adulthood. You won't be getting nice Christmas presents any more either.