Operation Biteback - how taxpayers could beat Cowens tax plans

AGP

I have this idea on how taxpayers could throw a spanner in the works of the governments tax rising plans for the december budget - Operation Biteback. Heres how it could work....

if they bring in this new property tax of 800 a year next year, then if every taxpayer changes the way they earn and spend over the course of the year so that they reduce their other taxes by 800 - then the government ends up no better off.

There are 2 main ways I can think of to reduce tax by 800 a year -

1. reduce hours, weeks salery through un-paid leave or whatever so that your overall salery drops , and as it does the tax take goes down too. yes you will have a lower overall salery, but the satisfaction of knowing you have screwed up the government's tax raises.

2 VAT - to save 800 through VAT alone you would need to spend 3200 a year less in Irish VAT shops. So you can either spend that money up north or abroad, or by buying in places where you don't have to pay VAT (like private sales on the internet and so on).

The key to success is for enough people to do Operation Biteback so no matter what the government does to try and raise taxes, they end up with the same ammount, but from different sources. Once they realise they can't win........

Wertz

But sure that means we're only robbing ourselves...I love this attitude of people that the government is out to fleece them...the country has to be paid for, debts and stupid wage levels have been incurred....tax intake is necessar to pay for that...only by lowering the debt and cutting stupidly high wage bills can we ever hope to go back to paying lower taxes...

Dexterm99

AGP wrote: »

I have this idea on how taxpayers could throw a spanner in the works of the governments tax rising plans for the december budget - Operation Biteback. Heres how it could work....

if they bring in this new property tax of 800 a year next year, then if every taxpayer changes the way they earn and spend over the course of the year so that they reduce their other taxes by 800 - then the government ends up no better off.

There are 2 main ways I can think of to reduce tax by 800 a year -

1. reduce hours, weeks salery through un-paid leave or whatever so that your overall salery drops , and as it does the tax take goes down too. yes you will have a lower overall salery, but the satisfaction of knowing you have screwed up the government's tax raises.

2 VAT - to save 800 through VAT alone you would need to spend 3200 a year less in Irish VAT shops. So you can either spend that money up north or abroad, or by buying in places where you don't have to pay VAT (like private sales on the internet and so on).

The key to success is for enough people to do Operation Biteback so no matter what the government does to try and raise taxes, they end up with the same ammount, but from different sources. Once they realise they can't win........

1. I am now worse off. Lets say an average weekly wage is €800. So that's €800 lost salary + €800 property tax = €1600. How does that benefit me?

2. Quite a lot of people are doing this all ready to make ends meet.

Riskymove

Dexterm99 wrote: »

. How does that benefit me?

The OP is not trying to benefit you, in fact he wants to hurt you

AGP

Riskymove wrote: »

The OP is not trying to benefit you, in fact he wants to hurt you

No - what I'm trying to suggest is a way that ordinary people can make the government realise they can't raise taxes any higher.

Because if we don't - then they will just keep coming back for more. This time next year we'll have 800 a year property tax, and then they'll raise it, and they'll be looking for other new taxes to introduce.

We'll end up with the tax rates that they have in Sweden but the public services like they have in Albania.

Riskymove

AGP wrote: »

Because if we don't - then they will just keep coming back for more.

so you think if government did not bring in the amount of tax they expected...that they'll just stop?

imo your plan (if it was actually done) would lead to more taxes

thebman

lol the government doesn't want to increase taxes, you don't vote for people who increase taxes.

They are doing this purely because the country is bankrupt if we don't raise taxes.

cocoa

AGP wrote: »

No - what I'm trying to suggest is a way that ordinary people can make the government realise they can't raise taxes any higher.

You can afford to go fecking about losing more money and at the same time think taxes can't be raised any higher? cop on to yourself...

eamonnm79

@ the OP

Man that its the stupidest plan I have ever heard.

1. Cut off your nose to spite your face.
2. Deliberitely impovorish yourself even more than the government taxes will do.
3. A few weeks later realise you are being stupid.

End plan.

Back to the drawing board!

ardmacha

1. Cut off your nose to spite your face.

This has merit too, then head down to your local hospital and make sure that you get some of those taxes.

On a general point, tax take in the ROI this year will only be about 25% of GNP. This is inappropriate for a the service expectations of a European country. Public expenditure economies are part of the cure but no European style economy can operate on this tax take. If public services are not efficient and delivering good outcomes then improve them. A property tax is perfectly reasonable, if people paid a lot of stamp duty in recent years then they could be exempt for a while, say until 8 or 10 years after they bought the house. Stamp duty should be reduced for people wishing to buy currently.

spank_inferno

I dont blame you OP,
So far in this recession its the people in the middle ground who suffer most.

The rich are fine, they always are.
So far those on the lowest havent been hit too hard.
Its the paye plebs in the middle who the burden always falls on the hardest.

But your idea is just cutting off your nose to spite your face.

However to offset the property tax I intent to steal €800 worth of stationary supplies for 2009/2010

dvpower

AGP wrote: »

Once they realise they can't win........

Keep going. Once they realise they can't win, then what?

jimmycrackcorm

perhaps op, you might suggest instead that people spend more money so that the tax take will in up, more jobs will get created and we'll spend less on sw. then we might have a chance of reducing the tax increases some time. Unless this thread is supposed to be about furthering the demise of the land.

kevteljeur

AGP wrote: »

No - what I'm trying to suggest is a way that ordinary people can make the government realise they can't raise taxes any higher.

Because if we don't - then they will just keep coming back for more. This time next year we'll have 800 a year property tax, and then they'll raise it, and they'll be looking for other new taxes to introduce.

We'll end up with the tax rates that they have in Sweden but the public services like they have in Albania.

LOL. Brilliant plan! Damn them, they just keep on taking and and taking!

Borrow some money, you'll like that. It's free money, just like winning the Lotto and you don't have to buy a ticket. There's another small difference, but I can't quite remember what it is...



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ejmaztec

Plan B:

Let's all go and live on mushrooms and berries in the woods. No property tax, income tax or any tax. That'll fix em!

ardmacha

Let's all go and live on mushrooms and berries in the woods. No property tax, income tax or any tax. That'll fix em

No need for such hardship. Get a nice big caravan, put it on someone's property without their permission, preferably near the border so that you can draw two sets of benefits.

Sponge Bob

Surely you mean that you can drag it over and back the line to avoid property tax

kevteljeur

Hmm, that way we can put the smack down on two sets of greedy, thieving governments! It's a shame we don't have borders with more states, but then again, the OP could trek through the world in the Biteback Caravan roadshow, setting wrongs to right and paying less tax everywhere.



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Purple Gorilla

AGP wrote: »

I have this idea on how taxpayers could throw a spanner in the works of the governments tax rising plans for the december budget - Operation Biteback. Heres how it could work....

if they bring in this new property tax of 800 a year next year, then if every taxpayer changes the way they earn and spend over the course of the year so that they reduce their other taxes by 800 - then the government ends up no better off.

There are 2 main ways I can think of to reduce tax by 800 a year -

1. reduce hours, weeks salery through un-paid leave or whatever so that your overall salery drops , and as it does the tax take goes down too. yes you will have a lower overall salery, but the satisfaction of knowing you have screwed up the government's tax raises.

2 VAT - to save 800 through VAT alone you would need to spend 3200 a year less in Irish VAT shops. So you can either spend that money up north or abroad, or by buying in places where you don't have to pay VAT (like private sales on the internet and so on).

The key to success is for enough people to do Operation Biteback so no matter what the government does to try and raise taxes, they end up with the same ammount, but from different sources. Once they realise they can't win........

...is this a joke?

This is money needed to run the country. If they don't get it from taxes, they have to get it from somewhere. So where do you propose we get the money? Borrow it? Yea that's a way better option.

Taxes will come back down in time but for the moment everyone just has to feel some pain. During a recession a government will never be popular (especially if you're fianna fail and you didn't manage all the country's excess money well) but like the head of BP said, we're taking this a lot better than other countries. The worst is over

thebman

thebman wrote: »

lol the government doesn't want to increase taxes, you don't vote for people who increase taxes.

They are doing this purely because the country is bankrupt if we don't raise taxes.

No the country is bankrupt if we dont make cutbacks

is_that_so

AGP wrote: »

I have this idea on how taxpayers could throw a spanner in the works of the governments tax rising plans for the december budget - Operation Biteback. Heres how it could work....

if they bring in this new property tax of 800 a year next year, then if every taxpayer changes the way they earn and spend over the course of the year so that they reduce their other taxes by 800 - then the government ends up no better off.

There are 2 main ways I can think of to reduce tax by 800 a year -

1. reduce hours, weeks salery through un-paid leave or whatever so that your overall salery drops , and as it does the tax take goes down too. yes you will have a lower overall salery, but the satisfaction of knowing you have screwed up the government's tax raises.

2 VAT - to save 800 through VAT alone you would need to spend 3200 a year less in Irish VAT shops. So you can either spend that money up north or abroad, or by buying in places where you don't have to pay VAT (like private sales on the internet and so on).

The key to success is for enough people to do Operation Biteback so no matter what the government does to try and raise taxes, they end up with the same ammount, but from different sources. Once they realise they can't win........

And how are we going to keep people employed to be able to dodge those taxes? A fancy name can't disguise the lack of any useful ideas. This is the kind of bar stool lunacy that the interwebz lets loose these days. The troubling things is that there are people out there who do think this kind of thing is a good idea and the Government are just out to screw us.