Budget tax trap calculation was contrived and misleading

‘THE devil is in the detail’, proclaimed the Irish Examiner front page of December 4 in cautionary reference to Minister McCreevy's budget speech of the previous afternoon.

How ironic then that the same admonition fitted perfectly the Examiner's headline of the following day 'Budget to snare 50% of taxpayers in the top rate net'.

Perusal of the detail of the article revealed that the percentage of taxpayers paying the top rate had been arrived at after excluding all those who are exempt from paying tax because their incomes fall below the exemption limit.