Irish Tax Institute wants focus on job creation

THE Irish Taxation Institute has made jobcreation the focal point of its pre-budget submission to the Government.

Getting people off the live register must be a priority, the institute said.

It has also called for a freezing of the marginal tax rates as they head towards being the eighth highest in the EU.

The submission strongly urges the Government to encourage Irish pension funds to invest in the struggling business sector. That would serve the dual purpose of injecting investment capital into cash-starved companies and would also help to generate jobs.

In documents sent to the Department of Finance, the tax body is proposing three new measures to support job creation and business.

It suggests employers could claim 50% of social welfare payment for taking the unemployed off the register for 12 months.

Part two proposes tax relief for individuals making capital investments in firms as a means of encouraging lending from the private sector to SMEs

The third rung of the submission says pension funds should be encouraged to invest in Irish corporates as “an alternative funding mechanism for medium to large Irish businesses”.

Andrew Cullen of the institute said: “We are proposing that Irish pension funds would be enabled, and possibly even required, to invest a minimum of their asset allocation in established medium and large Irish corporates.”

The institute says there should be no marginal rate increases in income tax.

It also says that it is not sustainable for half of the country’s income earners to pay no income tax at all.