The recommendations of the Commission on Taxation could result in “significant new burdens being placed on already hard-pressed working people”, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) said.
Ictu's economic adviser Paul Sweeney said: “The commission’s recommendations, if implemented in full, could see working people hit with higher costs at an already difficult time, while the business sector would benefit -effectively a transfer of resources from one to the other. That is neither fair nor sustainable.
“We have always believed and supported tax reform as we believe in an equitable, fair and progressive taxation system - unfortunately we cannot see how the Commission’s report will deliver on that goal,” Mr Sweeney said.
He said the exercise was "flawed from the beginning" and its terms of reference and composition "virtually guaranteed this outcome".
Ictu said it supported the decision of the trade union representative to the commission - Brendan Hayes of
Siptu - not to sign the final report and that it agreed fully with his reasons not signing.
“The entire exercise was driven and dominated by an outdated ideology that has been abandoned wholesale across the globe. This misguided philosophy is what has caused the greatest financial crisis of the modern era. Remarkably some still believe it to be a suitable reference point and basis for an examination of our tax system.
"Our fear is that the tax base had not been widened but that the burden imposed on working people, as opposed to business, has been increased,” Mr Sweeney concluded.
He said congress will consider the report in greater detail at the next executive council meeting on September 16th.
The People Before Profit Alliance said any attempt to load new taxes onto "hard pressed low and middle incomes earners would be resisted".
Councillor Richard Boyd Barrett noted the commission had stated it wished to keep the overall tax take low "even though we have one of the lowest tax to GDP ratio in Europe."
"We cannot keep the overall tax take low if we want decent public services. We say that the super rich in this country need to be taxed heavily to pay for the economic crisis they created."