Irish workers hand over less of their pay to the taxman than those in any other country, bar Luxembourg, in the 11-member euro zone. According to figures compiled for The Irish Times by accountants Deloitte & Touche, PAYE workers in the Republic suffer the second-lowest level of deductions as a percentage of gross income, a position that will remain unchanged following the latest Budget.

From next April, when the tax changes announced in the 2000 Budget kick in, workers will pay 22.34 per cent of their income in tax and social security, down from 24.31 per cent at present.

Only workers in Luxembourg fare better, paying 20.46 per cent of their salary in the form of deductions, while Spanish workers are just marginally worse off than their Irish counterparts, paying 24.38 per cent of their earnings in taxation.

High-tax countries include Finland, where workers pay more than 40 per cent of their salary in tax, followed by Belgium and Germany, both of which are in the high 30s. Workers in just four euro-zone states pay less than 30 per cent of their salaries in deductions.

The Deloitte & Touche figures show that a married man earning a gross salary of €40,000 (£31,500) in the Republic, with no children and whose spouse does not work, will enjoy take-home pay of €31,064 from next April compared to €30,275 at present.

His counterpart in Luxembourg takes home €31,817 while a Spanish worker has €30,247 in his pay packet.

The hard-pressed Finnish worker, by contrast, goes home with just €23,832 while Belgians fare just marginally better, taking home €24,094.

The breakdown between tax and social security varies enormously across the member-states with annual social security payments ranging from €1,882 in Spain to €8,270 in Germany.