Revenue’s Statistics & Economic Research Branch have this week released a fascinating report into the Irish farming sector.
The report includes a wealth of interesting, and some plainly odd, facts on Irish agriculture.
Here are a few that caught my eye:
- Over half of all farms earned less than €20,000 in 2012.
- Only 5% earned more than €100,000.
- Off-farm PAYE earnings account for nearly half of average family farm income. The old “farmer v PAYE worker” divide is now a thing of the past.
- Only 18 per cent of farmers who file tax returns are aged under 40.
- Revenue data records 273 farmers over 90 years old, and a further 3,315 aged over 80.
- “A small (unspecified) number of incorporated farmers” pay €28 million in Corporation Tax. If each pays the 12.5% rate, that’s a cool €224 million in profits.
- 89% of farmers filed an online Form 11 tax return in 2013 – so the stereotype of farmers as tech luddites is very much unfounded.
The full report is on the Revenue website