Madam, – The National Competitive Council’s proposal concerning valuation-based property tax strikes me as deeply unjust (Business This Week, June 26th).
The value of a property does not necessarily reflect the income of the occupant. A wealthy person can choose to live in a cheaper property if they wish to reduce their tax exposure. This person will not pay according to their means. Considerably more likely and yet more unfair is the reverse case: the retiree living in a home paid for when their income was much larger.
It strikes me as profoundly unfair that, after having paid for their homes in full with after-tax income, retired people are going to have pay a second time around.
As a matter of principle, taxes should be levied when wealth is liquidated and when profits are taken and not levied on the basis of illiquid assets. When a house is bought or sold is the time to tax that wealth, not when its owners are living in it.
The chairman of the NCC said that one feature of a property tax was that, unlike additional income tax, “it does not affect people’s incentive to work”.
I would dispute the extent to which taxes do discourage work – that sounds very like stale Thatcherism to me – but it is certain that a property tax will affect people’s right to live in homes they have already paid for. It is, in a profound sense, double-taxation. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – There is much speculation that the Government will introduce a property tax in the near future, based on the value of the dwelling. One simple problem lies in the long grass: does anyone in this country know the value of a property? I can immediately see a scenario in the vein of John Gormley and his light bulb solo run.
A valuer comes to a house and says, “Your house is worth X and your tax liability will be based thereon”. Home owner replies, “My house is worth €200,000 less than that, I will go to appeal”.
His neighbours say the same.Result? A backlog of appeals, leading to yet another tax which cannot be implemented because no foresight would have been employed. When will we see any semblance of cohesive thinking on any aspect of our financial catastrophe? It’s rapidly getting to the stage of “For God’s sake somebody do something!”, or, on second thoughts, are we past that? – Yours, etc,