New research by the Economic and Social Research Institute claims a new universal social charge could bring in enough revenue to replace PRSI, the health levy and the income levy.
The research was presented at a conference on Budget perspectives this morning.
Read the detailed research papers here
Last year, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan signalled his intention to combine the existing PRSI, health and income levies into a single social charge that would be applied to all income, but at a lower rate.
Today the ESRI published research showing that a 7.5% charge could raise enough money to replace all three charges. The main winners would be top rate taxpayers, who would see their marginal rate fall from 52% to 48.5%.
While this would suit the top 20% of taxpayers, all other income groups would lose out, unless there was a compensating mechanism, such as higher top income tax rates.
