Social Justice Ireland has urged the Government to expand social welfare supports instead of cutting tax for high earners in this autumn’s budget. The Minister for Finance has signalled that part of that sum will be spent on increasing the thresholds at which people start to pay the 40% tax rate. AdvertisementCurrently, people start to pay the 40% tax rate when they earn more than €44,000 a year. On Newstalk Breakfast, Michelle Murphy of Social Justice Ireland said increasing the rate people pay the higher band is “not going to do anything for anyone earning under that”. “Our proposal would be if you're going to do anything with the income tax system, do it through tax credits rather than looking at the bands,” she said.