Budget 2024: Five Things the Government Hope You Didn’t Notice

On Tuesday the government unveiled their budget for 2024. The media told us it was a ‘giveaway budget’ and we should all celebrate like we won the lotto. However, dig a little deeper and you see that this was a budget of permanent tax cuts for the rich and big landlords, and only one-off crumbs for ordinary people. Here Conall Mc Callig highlights five parts of the budget the government did not shout about:

Hands up: Who doesn’t care about renters?

1. Tax Cuts for Landlords: The government have created another new tax break for landlords. Landlords will receive 20% tax back on money they ‘earn’ from rent. They will get up to €600 tax back next year, €800 the year after, going up to €1,000 of tax-payers money for each landlord by 2026. In total, Budget 2024 gives €160 million to landlords, but only €88 million for renters.

2. Delaying Climate Action: Budget 2024 sets aside €3 billion for climate funding for the ‘Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund’, but this money will not actually be fully spent until 2030! Rather than invest that money now in retrofitting homes to reduce emissions and heat bills, or in other preventative measures, they are going to let the money gather dust in the bank for later. Immediate action is required to save a planet which is in an increasingly deteriorating state.

3. Regressive PAYE Changes: The government is going to raise the rate at which the higher rate of PAYE is paid to €42,000. This might sound like a bit of a break for middle-income workers, but the real gains go to those earning over €100,000. It would have been a lot better to scrap the USC for those earning under €100,000, as for instance People Before Profit proposed.

4. Tax Cuts for Big Business: This has been a very good budget for big business. The Research and Development (R&D) sector receives additional tax breaks, with the R&D tax credit increasing from 25% to 30% of expenditure. This means that the tax-payer will now foot 30% of the bill for companies' private R&D spend. Additionally, a new tax break has been created for “Angel Investors”; so-called ‘high net worth individuals’ with a net worth of greater than €1 million or an annual income of greater than €200,000. They will benefit from a reduced rate of Capital Gains Tax by investing in startup SMEs. As always, it seems that there is one rule for business and another for ordinary people.

5. Increase in military spending: In the wake of the Irish government’s continued push against neutrality, defence spending has risen once more. The Irish government have found an additional €54 million, bringing it’s total funding to €1.23 billion for the year. All whilst homelessness and poverty continue to grow.