Tax revenue is projected to be around €32bn in 2009. That equates to about 22% of GNP.
I think it is inevitable and desirable that taxes will increase but what is the long term sustainable tax take for Ireland as a % of GNP.
And why is our tax take so low with marginal rates of 52%?
What’s Ireland’s sustainable GNP is the first question…
What is Ireland?
A nation of full on insane self flagellating masochists.
I would say about €140bn.
I think that if the official estimate is €32 billion, it will actually be around €20-25 billion in the worst case scenario.
Tax for me now, with all the levies, is around 50% of my gross income. Emigrating next year and looking forward to it because it’s become so unaffordable 
it depends on how many multinationals come here to domicile their earnings here,
should the government increase corporation tax, all bets are off!
We can expect VAT receipts to collapse naturally enough,
declining population, higher taxes reducing disposable income, less people employed, less government expenditure finding its way into people’s pockets (bankers aside), cheaper electricity bills & gas bills will reduce VAT receipts
As consumer spending plummets, retail employment will plummet so income taxes will fall (more redundancies benefiting from state aid will create a negative income tax flow to the government)
capital gains - well these will fall, because even people that wold have accumulated gains in their properties over the past 15 years will finding no-one buying them, so they can’t sell to realise the gains. Also people will not be spending as much and the number of credit cards will continue to fall reducing stamp duty further.
stamp duty - more people will shop across the border as pubs/off licences refuse to pass on reductions
So its difficult to believe that taxes will remain anywhere near EUR 34 billion - unless the pharmaceutical and locally domiciled head offices of the multinationals start pumping in profits for the Government.
Personal indebtedness is the elephant in the room. A lot of that GDP has been signed away for 35 years.