A chara, – Diarmuid O’Flynn (March 28th) highlights that the penalty for late payment of the household charge by March 31st is as little as €10 for the first month, €20 for the second and €30 plus interest thereafter. However, it should be noted that failure to register for the charge is an offence. The fine upon summary conviction for such an offence ranges from €1000 to €2500.
Whether the charge is a necessary and overdue property tax, or a regressive and oppressive flat tax, is for each household to decide. In the meantime, they should not be presented with potentially misleading information by proponents of either stance. – Is mise,
JOHN SUGRUE,
Connaught Avenue,
Cork.
A chara, – Even at this late stage, may I humbly offer Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan a little advice on improving compliance in the payment of the household tax: 1. Stick strictly to the agreed cap on advisers’ and bankers’ remuneration. 2. Set a date for the referendum on the Senate. 3. Allow householders register and pay by every means possible. 4. Send out a bill and issue a receipt. 5. Tell the facts in relation to why this new tax is being introduced. 6. Less browbeating of the electorate. 7. Start to bring to justice a few of those made famous by the financial jiggery pokey and tribunal reports.
Note that confusing messages by ministers adds to the shambolic result now being realised. An extension would be sensible. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I have today (Wednesday) registered for the household charge. I will, however, not be paying it for the following reasons: 1. It is unclear what the charge will be used for. If it is to be used either directly or indirectly to support bank and developer bailouts, it is an inappropriate way to fund the bailout of people who don’t deserve to be bailed out and who show no contrition for their acts nor appreciation of the help given.
If it is planned to be used to support local services, then it is equally unclear to me what it is to be used for. I already pay for my bin (quite happily, by the way). I pay for my roads via road tax. I pay for my fire brigade when it calls around. I pay the planners for planning permissions. The police are funded by the State. That really only leaves water and if you want to drop by and install a water meter, I’ll be happy to pay for that directly too.
2. Over the past few years I have substantially reduced my income to accommodate the survival of my company, thus keeping my employees in work and increasing my workforce. This generates a continued tax take for the country, the alternative being the pay-out of unemployment money. I lead from the front when it came to taking salary reductions and I am the only person left in the company who has not had their salary adjusted back to its original amount.
3. At the same time I have seen tax increases, meaning that in absolute terms on a reduced salary I am paying almost the same tax as I was previously paying on a higher salary (not to mention higher VAT and the almost doubling of fuel prices).
4. At the same time I have seen benefits going down: child allowance and tax relief on medical expenses being just two I can think of off the cuff.
5. Meanwhile, I have to listen to the public debate about taxing the better off at higher rates because they can afford it. I am one of the better off being at what I call the upper end of middle-earners. I am there because I work every hour that God sends. I am fed up being portrayed by the public debate as the bad guy. I and people like me are the good guys. If you get rid of us the country will collapse entirely.
I don’t mind paying my own way, I don’t mind paying for the truly disadvantaged, but I cannot condone the situation we have allowed to come into being in this country where hard workers are paying for the idle at one end and the reckless at the other end. This household charge is just the last straw.
Please feel welcome to call around and collect my last shirt should that be helpful. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – How to make the household charge fair: by adding to the current exemptions the following groups: 1. Those in negative equity of more than, say, 15 per cent; 2. Those whose annual mortgage repayment is more than one-third of their net annual earnings (if childless) or one-quarter (if with children). 3 Those who own property outright yet fall below a set income threshold, say the annual minimum wage for a full-time worker (around €18,000).
But this charge has nothing to do with fairness: it’s the classic Irish government policy of squeezing the little people to pay for the excesses of the well-off (even if they sink the economy in the process). – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It seems that by Monday next the Government will have lost the support of the majority of the people of this country for this inequitable tax measure.
The Irish people know well where this tax money will go – into the same black hole that supports the pensions of the elite. This country has become, through lack of leadership, greed and corruption, the Irish equivalent of the Fukushima disaster. A new type of democracy is needed. One that does not bow to the ECB, or IMF, or foreign gambling bondholders.
It remains to be seen if the lethargy which has been part of the culture of this State is now to arise in anger against this government and its policies. The household tax may well prove the catalyst. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I’d collect the household charge easily: first prize: €10 million; second prize, €6 million; 10 prizes of €1 million. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – So the politicians are going to put us in jail. I look forward to meeting them there.
Politicians never learn from history. They scrapped the residential property tax because it generated abysmal revenue. It was inherently flawed because tax should be based on cash coming in (I make €100 and I give the Government €52, okay).
But the Taoiseach says the tax is only €100. The problem is the €100 this year will be €3,000 next year. Seems doubtful? VAT started in this country at 1 per cent, in America income tax started at 2 per cent. Once you give politicians a new tax, they will increase it every year. Jurisdictions that do have property tax have lower income taxes than we have and lower or no VAT. I don’t make money from my home, where am I to get €3,000? Consider older people living on a fixed income, what are they to do? It’s nuts.
The Government needs to get its own house in order before asking for more taxes. We do not have a revenue problem but a spending one. Tax revenue is at 2004 levels: what’s wrong with that, not a bad year?
The exchequer pay and pensions bill increased by 71 per cent from 2001 to 2011. If a company incurred that kind of cash haemorrhaging it would be bankrupt; which is exactly what happened to this country.
People can’t pay any more. Lady Godiva rode naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry to protest at her husband’s oppressive taxes. It worked. Maybe that’s what we need to wake up the Government. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I see Taoiseach Enda Kenny has urged people to pay the household charge before the deadlline on Saturday. When comparing the €100 charge to similar taxes faced by our fellow European citizens, did he pause to consider his salary in comparison to his European counterparts? Mr Kenny receives €0.05 per capita, compared to Nicolas Sarkozy €0.004 per capita, Angela Merkel €0.003 per capita.
If these comparisons are unfair, well then so is Mr Kenny’s comparison of the household charge to property and rates taxes across Europe. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The appalling decision by Phil Hogan to deploy council staff to remind/pester householders about the household charge is merely an attempt to avoid political embarrassment for himself. Yet this decision has presented conmen up and down the country with the opportunity to scam some frightened and elderly householders out of €100.
If Mr Hogan has any sense of social responsibility – which he is ostensibly trying to encourage in others – he will scrap this ridiculous plan to send council workers door-to-door and limit the damage he has already done.
It is bad enough to see the Government extorting €100 from every home in the country, but to open up some vulnerable homeowners to the possibility of being conned out of another €100 is nothing short of a disgrace. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The concept of paying a charge/rate per annum for local services and amenities is perfectly reasonable and should have been introduced again nationally many years ago.
There seems to be a fear however, that in paying this €100 household charge into a central Government account, the money will be diverted to causes other than the intended destination (local councils).
To allay this fear, why can we not simply pay this money directly to our local councils, thus ensuring the charge does indeed go to them. Is there some major problem preventing us from doing this? The paying of household rates has been well established in the UK for many years. They are paid directly to the local councils and not to the government. It is logical and makes sense. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I can certainly identify with the sense of outrage at the fact that some of the upper echelons of finance and property have broken the Irish economy, and that we, the ordinary citizens, are left to fund a recovery.
But I fail to see why a nominal household charge should be scapegoated, when that only further undermines respect for law and order.
Surely, what we need to see are clear examples of law being upheld and appropriate penalties applied to any of proven guilt? We need to be reassured with ample evidence that our judicial system has adequate teeth. This is more than the need for emotional catharsis. We urgently need to see justice upheld and enforced consistently across society, rather than protests, however sincerely held, that only weaken that recovery.
At the same time, I can also see that conspicuous examples of lawfully enforced justice would likely have facilitated the easier parting of our €100! – Yours, etc,