Sir, – The figures comparing the total 2015 tax-take to gross domestic product (GDP) do not paint a realistic picture for the Irish citizen ("Ireland v Rest of the World – Do we pay too much tax?", Online, September 26th).
The difference between Ireland’s GDP and gross national product (GNP) is far more pronounced than most other countries due to the large presence of multinationals and aircraft-financing firms, among others.
Had you compared the tax take to the newly introduced “modified gross national income” (GNI*) measure, which better reflects our economy, as per the CSO, you would have found that the income tax burden was closer to 10.5 per cent, which would rank us ahead of the UK and France, instead of behind. – Yours, etc,
CONOR BROWNE,
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Dublin 15.