With five days to go until Budget 2023 is unveiled, members of Ireland’s largest professional accountancy body stressed the need to use the Budget as a tool to improve the wider business operating environment, specific business needs and, crucially, the lot of individual taxpayers. This holistic approach is critical to support individuals and ensure that Ireland is an attractive place to live and work. 
The Society reiterated that with a variety of financial and administrative burdens on the horizon, from legislative developments on auto-enrolment, the right to request remote working, and statutory sick pay, government interventions need to happen in a considered and balanced way that doesn’t add extra pressures on business.  

Commenting, Chair of Chartered Accountants Ireland Leinster Society Ann-Marie Costello said 

“In its pre-Budget submission and commentary over the summer the Institute stressed that addressing business needs in isolation won’t help our economy to weather this turbulence and remain competitive. Talent is the engine of economic growth, so in tandem with targeted measures to assist business, this Budget needs to address infrastructural and personal finance issues so that people can survive and succeed in Ireland.”

From Institute engagement with members, it is clear that in addition to the unprecedented challenges of inflation and rising energy costs, among the biggest challenges facing businesses are people-related, both attracting them and managing them. Over 60% of members cite competition for talented people as a significant challenge.

Costello continued         
“Ireland’s investment policy has traditionally been focused on taxation from the employer’s perspective, however in 2022, this focus needs to be widened. In recent weeks, a survey by this Society pointed to continued strong earnings prospects for Chartered Accountants working across Leinster, including for newly qualified members, however in spite of this, accounting has been listed on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s Critical Skills Occupations List since 2016. This is all the more reason that employee needs must be placed at the very core of a successful business environment.”

Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Pre-Budget submission, under the auspices of the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies Ireland (CCAB-I) contains measures to address some of the most pressing societal issues facing Ireland. It proposes that consideration be given to reforming personal tax allowances so that allowances are ‘frontloaded’ at the outset of a person’s career. The submission suggests that such reform is in line with government policy on FDI and should form part of Ireland’s overall policy to attract and retain talent.

In addition to reforming personal tax allowances, the CCAB-I supports the proposal to introduce a third rate of income tax to make the tax system more equitable provided that the entry levels to each band of tax are appropriate.

Of equal importance is ensuring that Ireland has a functioning housing market to house its population and attract and retain talent to our shores. In its Pre-Budget submission, Chartered Accountants Ireland noted that the residential property market is in crisis, with not enough houses to buy or rent in the private sector and not enough houses being built by the State for those who need social housing. It proposed the extension of the 25% tax rate enjoyed by corporate landlords to individuals, so that the tax system could be effectively harnessed to encourage landlords to stay in the market and new entrants to meet the supply shortage.

ENDS

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