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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

13. The Irish Tax State and Historical Legacies: Slowly Converging Capacity, Persistent Unwillingness to Pay

Authors : Michelle D’Arcy, Marina Nistotskaya

Published in: Taxation, Politics, and Protest in Ireland, 1662–2016

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The historical tax state in Ireland prior to independence was characterised by low administrative capacity, a regressive tax structure, and popular resistance to taxation. We chart the impact of this history for both formal institutions—the revenue authority’s administrative capacity—and informal institutions—norms and attitudes towards taxation. We argue that, in terms of formal institutions, a historical legacy of administrative weakness has meant that, compared to other European countries, there have been lags in the adoption of modern tax practices and administration. However, significant reforms in the 1990s turned the Irish Revenue Commissioners into an impressive institution on par with tax authorities in other countries. While administrative capacity has converged with other OECD member states, the second legacy of resistant attitudes towards taxation has been harder to erode. Unwillingness to pay has been a theme in Irish tax politics and has constrained successive governments in their attempts to create a sustainable revenue base. The Irish case suggests that historical legacies may persist or subside at different rates in formal and informal institutions, with attitudes towards taxation proving more persistent.

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previous chapter The Economic War and the Pamphlet War

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Tax farming is a contractual system of tax collection, involving a private agent who is awarded by the government the right to collect certain revenue in a specified area for a specified period of time, in exchange for a fixed sum paid to the government.

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Although the Down Survey of Ireland was a cadastral map recording property ownership and was incorporated into the Books of Survey and Distribution used in the calculation of quit rents, its primary purpose was land re-distribution rather than taxation. For more information, see Roger Kain and Elizabeth Baigent, The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State: A History of Property Mapping (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 236–64.

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High customs revenue after the 1930s was also due to the Fianna Fáil government’s adoption of an economic policy of self-sufficiency, which meant that Irish customs duties were some of the highest in the world; see Ray MacSharry and Padraic White, The Making of the Celtic Tiger: The Inside Story of Ireland’s Boom Economy (Cork: Mercier Press, 2000).

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100

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101

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102

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103

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104

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105

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106

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107

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108

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109

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110

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111

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112

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113

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114

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115

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Title: The Irish Tax State and Historical Legacies: Slowly Converging Capacity, Persistent Unwillingness to Pay
Authors: Michelle D’Arcy
Marina Nistotskaya
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Taxation, Politics, and Protest in Ireland, 1662–2016
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04308-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-04309-4

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04309-4_13