Taoiseach: Budget to redesign tax system

TOMORROW’S budget will signal a major redesign of the country’s entire tax system, needed after the collapse in tax receipts from sectors such as development and the huge increase in unemployment, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has indicated.

The budget will include measures not just for this year but also for the next three or four years in terms of changes to the tax system, both income tax and other taxes, he said.

“We have to basically redesign our tax system to meet the new requirements of our day,” he said, adding that there were parts of the tax system that would not yield the same as in the past, such as on property and ways would have to be found to compensate for that.