SO – THE SPEECHES have been made, the documents published and pored over, and the country’s TDs have gone up and down the steps of the Dáil chamber to cast their votes.
But at the end of the day, the Budget is about deciding where the government is going to spend its money, and how it’s going to get it it in the first place.
To try and illustrate exactly where the country spends its money, we’ve pored over the Budget documents to compile an authoritative list of areas in which the State does its spending for 2012.
To give the best possible illustration of where the money goes, we’ve tried – as best as we can – to use the tax contributed by the average taxpayer.
The latest CSO statistics on income showed that the average weekly wage – in the third quarter of 2012, at least – was €694.96. On an annual basis, this translates to €36,137.92 per year.
It gets complicated if you’re married, have children, or have certain entitlements like mortgage interest relief… but assuming you’re single, you rent and you don’t have kids, your total tax bill – including income tax, USC and PRSI – is €7,924 (according to our Budget Calculator 2013).
(For the sake of simplicity we’re ignoring the tax you pay through other means – like the property tax, the excise duty on tobacco, alcohol and petrol, or the VAT on… well, almost everything.)
So – based on tax payments of €7,924, here’s where your money goes:
The money above adds up to slightly more than €7,924 – and that’s because the government has set aside €220 million made in pay savings and not assigned it to any particular area. This accounts for the €25.26 extra.
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