proposed property tax 2010

lavenderlady

Just hearing the news this morning, that we are most likely faced with a property tax later this year- am furious the government are even thinking of this.are we going to accept this , just as we have accepted all the pay levies/ penalties in recent times??. I have put myself through college, worked hard through my early 20's , scrimped and saved to get on property ladder. I am now saddled with negative equity, higher taxes, pay cuts and now possibly this. My partner who has a first class honours degree, isnow barely earning a living from his previously well paid job. I am a professional whose skills are valued worldwide and am seriously considering getting out of this mess of a country for good. Ithink if this is introduced , it will be the final straw for me
Can they do this to us?

The_Honeybadger

lavenderlady wrote: »

Just hearing the news that we are most likely faced with a property tax later this year- am furious the government are even thinking of this.are we going to accept this , just as we have accepted all the pay levies/ penalties in recent times. I have put myself through college, worked hard through my early 20's , scrimped and saved to get on property ladder.Now saddled with negative equity, higher taxes, pay cuts and now possibly this. I am a proffessional whose skills are valued worldwide and am seriously considering getting out of this mess of a country for good.
Can they do this to us?

Where do you intend to go? Most countries have property taxes, not being clever, just making the point that we are one of very few countries with no property and water charges, and have pretty low levels of income tax. Most people who have not lost their jobs after the celtic tiger would still be doing pretty well compared to workers in other countries I would guess.

danbohan

lavenderlady wrote: »

Just hearing the news this morning, that we are most likely faced with a property tax later this year- am furious the government are even thinking of this.are we going to accept this , just as we have accepted all the pay levies/ penalties in recent times??. I have put myself through college, worked hard through my early 20's , scrimped and saved to get on property ladder. I am now saddled with negative equity, higher taxes, pay cuts and now possibly this. My partner who has a first class honours degree, isnow barely earning a living from his previously well paid job. I am a professional whose skills are valued worldwide and am seriously considering getting out of this mess of a country for good. Ithink if this is introduced , it will be the final straw for me
Can they do this to us?

they can , they will , they should . we are borrowing 50million+ per day they have to raise it from somewhere. you will do very well to find any country where you don't have to pay some form of property tax we should been paying it here for years

delop

For me its as simple as 'Not while FF is in power'

I would grudgingly accept it from another government if it was done in a fair and transparent manner. But i fear its just another lazy fixup by FF, and who will do the assessments? the protected FF Auctioneers Ill bet, the same *hunts who cheered the bubble and have survived the crash without sanction ..

George Orwell 1982

I imagine their will be an exemption for people in negative equity. I heard a discussion about this on the radio a while back and someone from FF was saying it just wouldn't wash to slap a property tax on someone in negative equity.

Tipp Man

George Orwell 1982 wrote: »

I imagine their will be an exemption for people in negative equity. I heard a discussion about this on the radio a while back and someone from FF was saying it just wouldn't wash to slap a property tax on someone in negative equity.

I am sick of hearing this nonsense about negative equity, as long as you can continue to meet your repayments and don't need to sell then it is not an issue, and seen as though there is such little movement in the labour market there are only a very small number where it is an issue

So if you can service your mortage you should pay the tax, regardless of negative equity

Liam Byrne

George Orwell 1982 wrote: »

I imagine their will be an exemption for people in negative equity. I heard a discussion about this on the radio a while back and someone from FF was saying it just wouldn't wash to slap a property tax on someone in negative equity.

It doesn't actually "wash" to slap any property tax on anyone who has already paid stamp duty on crazily overpriced houses......if anything, there should be no property tax due from those people until the stamp duty amount is offset against the annual property tax.

I won't hold my breath, though; given the fiasco that is VRT + Road Tax + Tolls + Massive tax on fuel + NCT, the government have no sense of fairness or of not charging you twice if they know you're not a well-off lobby group.

As for where this money is going to come from ? Or what they're going to waste it on ?

danbohan

George Orwell 1982 wrote: »

I imagine their will be an exemption for people in negative equity. I heard a discussion about this on the radio a while back and someone from FF was saying it just wouldn't wash to slap a property tax on someone in negative equity.

anybody in negative equity should pay 2x times the tax because they have done more to create this housing bubble/ collapse than rest of us and should therefore take more of responsibility in paying for it .

dean21

mickeyk wrote: »

Where do you intend to go? Most countries have property taxes, not being clever, just making the point that we are one of very few countries with no property and water charges, and have pretty low levels of income tax. Most people who have not lost their jobs after the celtic tiger would still be doing pretty well compared to workers in other countries I would guess.

We had a tax, is was called stamp duty
Are people going to get this tax back?????

Tora Bora

lavenderlady wrote: »

Just hearing the news this morning, that we are most likely faced with a property tax later this year- am furious the government are even thinking of this.are we going to accept this , just as we have accepted all the pay levies/ penalties in recent times??. I have put myself through college, worked hard through my early 20's , scrimped and saved to get on property ladder. I am now saddled with negative equity, higher taxes, pay cuts and now possibly this. My partner who has a first class honours degree, isnow barely earning a living from his previously well paid job. I am a professional whose skills are valued worldwide and am seriously considering getting out of this mess of a country for good. Ithink if this is introduced , it will be the final straw for me
Can they do this to us?

Settle down there now and have a cup of coffee :P You are gonna see, year on year introduction of various sorts of levies and taxes to plug the hole in the boat. Cost of your childrens (if you have or will have) will sky rocket over the medium term. You will pay property tax! You will pay water rates! You will pay increased local authority charges for services! Etc, etc, etc ad nauseum:D:D:D

But look abroad, look to Europe!!! All you read about now is "austerity" measures. What it boils down to is the governments in Europe will now start cutting spending and raising taxes to plug the hole in their own boats. So before you sell your negative equity home at a negative equity price (if you are lucky) to go abroad, just remember you will probably walk into the same sort of scenario :D:D:D

Stay home and have the pleasure of being shafted by Eamon Gilmore instead of being shafted by Lehihan. :D:D:D:D

seamus

mickeyk wrote: »

Where do you intend to go? Most countries have property taxes, not being clever, just making the point that we are one of very few countries with no property and water charges, and have pretty low levels of income tax. Most people who have not lost their jobs after the celtic tiger would still be doing pretty well compared to workers in other countries I would guess.

+1

Try moving to the United States. They're a country reknowed for their hatred of taxes. Yet your property will have a tax levied upon it by the local county (I think, maybe the state). And if you live in a nice area with good amenities, you will pay through the nose for those amenities.

I was talking to an American/Polish guy who was over here on a work contract a while back who said that he pays more than $5,000 per year on property taxes, around 7.5% of his annual salary.

We're worrying about property taxes which will likely amount to about 3% of the average salary for the average home.

We have to get used to this. We've been very lightly taxed for a long time. The only taxes you have to pay are Income Tax and VAT. Everything else is optional - you choose to pay it by availing of the service/product, such as VRT or stamp duty.
This is in contrast to the rest of the world where if you want good services, you pay taxes right, left and centre.

The Irish people are going to have to get used to this.

There won't be any exemption for negative equity. They'll probably use a method similar to the U.S. - you pay a % of the purchase price of your home (if bought in the last five/ten years) *or* you can get the value reassessed and pay a % of that. Obviously most people will go get the value reassessed.

Boom time for assessors

conorhal

danbohan wrote: »

they can , they will , they should . we are borrowing 50million+ per day they have to raise it from somewhere. you will do very well to find any country where you don't have to pay some form of property tax we should been paying it here for years

My opinion on this is simple, don't come knocking on my door looking for a handout until you get your house in order. We are borrowing 50 million a day to sustain the unsustainable.
It's a myth that we are anything like a low tax economy, we're a moderate direct taxation economy with massive indirect taxes and charges, and I for one resent the number of times I have to pay tax on the money I earn. I'm being told to live within my means by a government that want to live large on my means. Once a government starts taking more than half of what you earn it can expect people to start avoiding tax by any means necessary.

As a PAYE worker, I get taxed when I earn it, say an average of 30 cent on the euro, leaving me with 70 cent. Then I get taxed when I spend it, an average of 21%, leaving me with 55.3 cent. And now having spent it on a house they want another taste because they can't be bothered to wait untill you die to rob your grave with death taxes. They can FF OFF!

ednwireland

i wouldnt actually mind paying but it has to go with wholesale reform of the public service (esp. councils) as i know i wont get improved services fro this extra money going in, i want to see some serious efficiencies put in place, now i'm a realist and know that this is never going to happen and the gov, councils and PS will continue p**ssing money away like theres no tomorrow.
ever time you spend any money working for anyone you should appreciate where that moneys coming from and how hard people have had to work to generate that money (this seems sadly lacking in anything publicly funded)

The_Honeybadger

dean21 wrote: »

We had a tax, is was called stamp duty
Are people going to get this tax back?????

You make a fair point. It does seem unfair to levy these people again, but where do we draw the line, our 20bn deficit ain't gonna go away by itself, and no matter what measures are taken to try to plug the gap they are unfair on somebody.

danbohan

conorhal wrote: »

My opinion on this is simple, don't come knocking on my door looking for a handout until you get your house in order. We are borrowing 50 million a day to sustain the unsustainable.
It's a myth that we are anything like a low tax economy, we're a moderate direct taxation economy with massive indirect taxes and charges, and I for one resent the number of times I have to pay tax on the money I earn. I'm being told to live within my means by a government that want to live large on my means. Once a government starts taking more than half of what you earn it can expect people to start avoiding tax by any means necessary.

As a PAYE worker, I get taxed when I earn it, say an average of 30 cent on the euro, leaving me with 70 cent. Then I get taxed when I spend it, an average of 21%, leaving me with 55.3 cent. And now having spent it on a house they want another taste because they can't be bothered to wait untill you die to rob your grave with death taxes. They can FF OFF!

nobody likes paying tax , especially to see it go into black holes like banks and badly ran public services , yes their is massive wastage here , but that wont be sorted in short term or indeed maybe long term so whether we like it or not by this time next year we will all be paying property tax and in years after they will find more ways to tax the little you have left after paye etc ,remember we have 500k unemployed and an untouchable public service to fund so better get used of it or emigrate

Jaysoose

mickeyk wrote: »

You make a fair point. It does seem unfair to levy these people again, but where do we draw the line, our 20bn deficit ain't gonna go away by itself, and no matter what measures are taken to try to plug the gap they are unfair on somebody.

I think most people accept that taxes are an evil we have to put up with, the main issue is the way this goverment allocates and spends the revenue it gets from taxation. If the goverment had a clear plan to improve the standards of the services we receive and also address the wages of the public sector in a way that shows improvements in efficiency for the greater good then i would pay the tax.

What i dont like is the current attitude of the goverment and the public sector that the people will keep putting their hands in their pockets to maintain the current status quo, this in my eyes is wrong.

The_Honeybadger

Jaysoose wrote: »

I think most people accept that taxes are an evil we have to put up with, the main issue is the way this goverment allocates and spends the revenue it gets from taxation. If the goverment had a clear plan to improve the standards of the services we receive and also address the wages of the public sector in a way that shows improvements in efficiency for the greater good then i would pay the tax.

What i dont like is the current attitude of the goverment and the public sector that the people will keep putting their hands in their pockets to maintain the current status quo, this in my eyes is wrong.

In fairness the government introduced the pension levy & paycuts in the PS. I think they fudged th CP deal by not agreeing strict conditions and timelines, but at the same time it's a step in the right direction. We can't expect all the problems to be solved overnight, but yes we need to see real progress from now on, not empty promises.

blue_steel

Tipp Man wrote: »

I am sick of hearing this nonsense about negative equity, as long as you can continue to meet your repayments and don't need to sell then it is not an issue, and seen as though there is such little movement in the labour market there are only a very small number where it is an issue

So if you can service your mortage you should pay the tax, regardless of negative equity

em·pa·thy

   /ˈɛmpəθi/ Show Spelled[em-puh-thee] Show IPA
–noun the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

invinciblePRSTV

To echo what EdwinIreland said, i think a property tax should only really be introduced as a means to provide local services. Without doubt this is just another regressive tax to balance the governments books.

However long term, a property tax can help fund local services in a reformed local authority system with enhanced powers and responsibilities as part of a devolvement of authority from central government.

Let's not forget the history in all this. Gullible people in 1977 voted for FF who proposed removing domestic rates, the consequences of this decision still haunts us to this day.

Jaysoose

mickeyk wrote: »

In fairness the government introduced the pension levy & paycuts in the PS. I think they fudged th CP deal by not agreeing strict conditions and timelines, but at the same time it's a step in the right direction. We can't expect all the problems to be solved overnight, but yes we need to see real progress from now on, not empty promises.

This is the thing though, the cuts are a drop in the ocean to whats needed. There is no plan, no forward thinking...money being poured into anglo without any return.

If they show me something concrete i will be happy to pay the tax all they are doing at the minute all they are doing is ignoring the problems while incredulously claiming that 'we have turned a corner' at the same time the live register is still growing!!

I really fear that we as a nation are on the verge of defaulting.

Liam Byrne

Jaysoose wrote: »

If they show me something concrete i will be happy to pay the tax all they are doing at the minute all they are doing is ignoring the problems while incredulously claiming that 'we have turned a corner' at the same time the live register is still growing!!

The FF lackey that was on Frontline the other night backing Cowen as the next Taoiseach :rolleyes: claimed that we hadn't "turned a corner" yet.

How he supports a Taoiseach that he blatantly contradicts on a key FF spin-point is beyond me.

ei.sdraob

Liam Byrne wrote: »

The FF lackey that was on Frontline the other night backing Cowen as the next Taoiseach :rolleyes: claimed that we hadn't "turned a corner" yet.

How he supports a Taoiseach that he blatantly contradicts on a key FF spin-point is beyond me.

We turned so many corners now my head is spinning :P

bijapos

Property tax, and for that matter water charges are needed whether we like it or not. The tax base has to be spread out more evenly, tax revenue has to be guaranteed during a recession as well as during a boom.

Having said that I think allowance should be made for those who have recently paid stamp duty. Giving a reduction for those who paid over the last 10 years on a sliding scale would be a possibility.

The property tax should be ringfenced and given to the county councils, water charges should be ringfenced for upgrading water infrastructure.

conorhal

danbohan wrote: »

nobody likes paying tax , especially to see it go into black holes like banks and badly ran public services , yes their is massive wastage here , but that wont be sorted in short term or indeed maybe long term so whether we like it or not by this time next year we will all be paying property tax and in years after they will find more ways to tax the little you have left after paye etc ,remember we have 500k unemployed and an untouchable public service to fund so better get used of it or emigrate

Sod that, I'd go with option B. Just not pay it.
I know several people that say (and not just in the typically Irish sense of hollow outrage) that they will go to jail before paying a property tax.

Think about it. You have a government and a bank, one inflates the property market for the revenue creating an unsustainable pyramid scheme, the other loans the money to their builder mates in the hopes of handsome profits and then sells you a mortgage on this inflated property that it's not sure that you can afford.
The banks go bust along with the developers and the government decides to bail them out, so it taxes the house that they forced up the cost of and buried you in debt for so that the can bail out the very people responsible?

There will be a fockin' revolution of they try this....

Tipp Man

blue_steel wrote: »

em·pa·thy

   /ˈɛmpəθi/ Show Spelled[em-puh-thee] Show IPA
–noun the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

you've written that without actually reading my post properly

IF YOU ARE NOT HAVING TROUBLE SERVICING YOUR MORTAGE YOU SHOUD PAY THE TAX REGARDLESS OF NEGATIVE EQUITY

hinault

A property tax should be introduced.
On a pro-rata basis depending on the size/value of the house.

Pot Noodle =

No way not while they are drawing large salaries and expenses I have paid my tax on my homes i will not pay again

bijapos

I wouldn't be in favour of a tax on the value of the house, I foresee three problems.

1. It will cost to value the house, therre will be too many arguments and appeals to the value, it becomes messy. What if you have two similar houses beside each other, two different valuers, one says 170k, the other 200k?

2. If someone renovates/improves their house why then should they pay more than someone who does nothing?

3. Someone may have bought a house for little money years ago, they may have an average earning job but because of forces outside their control the house is now worth a lot of money, why should they necesarily pay a lerge tax.

Not that sure myself how it should be done but hinault touched on it by mentioning the size of the property. I think county councils should have a hand in determining the amount of tax as well.

gurramok

Pot wrote:

No way not while they are drawing large salaries and expenses I have paid my tax on my homes i will not pay again

Definitely pay it on 2nd, 3rd etc homes

tails_naf

It happend in the US (especially in silicon valley) where people had family homes for years, and property taxes were paid on the value of the home.

When the property prices skyrocketed as silicon valley started growing, people found that the yearly property taxes started exceeding their incomes, and were forced to move from their family homes.

Years later, the law changed so the property tax was fixed at the date of purchase, and only re-valued when the house was sold.

As sure as sugar, the current batch of financial whizzes will manage to mess this up leaving all kinds of pain for you and me, and on top of that:

- The lads on the dole with the free houses will not pay a cent.
- Those of us in the middle will pay a good percentage of our income - maybe 2%?
- Those living in foxrock witha 45mil home will pay a tiny fraction of its worth (3,000 euro cap, as reported by one paper)

So for the person who said this will spread out the tax base more evenly - it will only widen the existing gaps.


Even if it was done as right and as fairly as could be, I'm completely opposed to property tax. We do pay enough tax as it is, it is time to reign in the welfare and other fraud, really spread the tax base, and stop the waste.

Nothing will change unless we vote to change it. No to Property Tax

Zulu

I have to agree. It's just pouring water into a collander. Shore up the holes, then, if there isn't enough, I'll happily give you more.

You wouldn't give a €100 to a junky to "get themselves clean" before you saw positive calculable actions taking place.

Demonon

I think this property tax is necessary in order to sustain the inflated wages and pensions of the public sector.

gaeilgegrinds1

Work hard through school, college, then the working world. Always pay my own way and now I have to pay for purchasing my home?!! As opposed to those who did nothing all their lives...and still continue to do nothing.

Pot Noodle =

gurramok wrote: »

Definitely pay it on 2nd, 3rd etc homes

I pay those under duress

OMD

Tipp Man wrote: »

So if you can service your mortage you should pay the tax, regardless of negative equity

And if you can afford to rent you should also be able to pay the tax. If the tax is to be fair it should be paid by home owners and renters, as is done in UK and most EU countries.

Tipp Man

OMD wrote: »

And if you can afford to rent you should also be able to pay the tax. If the tax is to be fair it should be paid by home owners and renters, as is done in UK and most EU countries.

I have no doubt that after the next budget I'll be paying more tax to add to the many thousands that I have paid already this year - whatever form it takes

My point was that negative equity is an irrlevant factor when considering somebody's ablity to pay a property tax

OMD

Tipp Man wrote: »

I have no doubt that after the next budget I'll be paying more tax to add to the many thousands that I have paid already this year - whatever form it takes

My point was that negative equity is an irrlevant factor when considering somebody's ablity to pay a property tax

But my point, and I acceptit was different to your point, is that a property tax should apply to everyone not just home owners. Why should someone have to pay more tax simply because they own their house.

delop

How about a property tax as a combined figure of site valuation & % of your wage/wealth ...


Edit: forget what i said, stupid idea, guess not everyone is PAYE

rightwingdub

It should have been brought into Ireland in the late 90's at least it might have curbed the lunacy of the property market during the celtic tiger.

What the government should have done over the last ten 10 years.

1)Reduced the bottom rate of income tax to 12% and the top rate to 30%
2) Brought in water charges and a property tax depending on the value of the home also a form of council tax as well.

Along with strict guidleines for getting a mortgage and a property tax house prices would have slowly increased and the Irish economy wouldn't have suffered and almighty crash that has been experienced since late 2007, along with keeping public spending in check.

We can't have it both ways.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

theory:
they will be dragged out and hung from lamp posts if they try to bring this in
they'd be better advised to raise tax on drink and ciggies .

that said

FACT :
we are a nation of pussies

Tipp Man

OMD wrote: »

But my point, and I acceptit was different to your point, is that a property tax should apply to everyone not just home owners. Why should someone have to pay more tax simply because they own their house.

I haven't read up much on the details of the proposal and how it would be implemented so I don't know if I as the renter will pay or if my landlord will pay

Either he pays directly then charges me more rent or I pay directly to government, either way it going to cost me so i don't really think it is an issue

halkar

All these taxes getting complicated. Just get employers to lodge our pay cheques to government in return of food stamps :mad:

Sick of hearing every day we are borrowing millions bla bla and yet we are able to give billions to anglo.

ardmacha

A property tax is a normal part of the tax system of a mature country.
Apart from a fair basis for levying this, two other things are needed

people who bought in the last 8 or 10 years to be exempt, these people paid a lot of stamp duty (this more or less catches those in negative equity). With so many house sales in the 2005-2007 this exemption would allow the government predict an increased yield from this tax.

people unable to pay because of lack of income, e.g. pensioners should be able to roll up the tax until their house is sold. This would prevent an elderly person having to move and the property tax would still not amount to 5% of the value of the house.

rightwingdub

ardmacha wrote: »

A property tax is a normal part of the tax system of a mature country.
Apart from a fair basis for levying this, two other things are needed

people who bought in the last 8 or 10 years to be exempt, these people paid a lot of stamp duty (this more or less catches those in negative equity). With so many house sales in the 2005-2007 this exemption would allow the government predict an increased yield from this tax.

people unable to pay because of lack of income, e.g. pensioners should be able to roll up the tax until their house is sold. This would prevent an elderly person having to move and the property tax would still not amount to 5% of the value of the house.

The problem Ireland isn't a normal mature countryor at the very least large sections of the Irish electorate are quite immature when it comes to things like property taxes:mad:

Stinicker

Should this title not be Budget 2011 as this will be in the Budget for 2011 which will be given in the dail sometime in December of this year (2010) Budget 2010 was last December 2009 :-/

zenno

Demonon wrote: »

I think this property tax is necessary in order to sustain the inflated wages and pensions of the public sector.

how is it necessary. there you are struggling for decades to pay for your home and with alot of hard work you get the payment finished. then the government says hang on we want you to pay for your house again lol to be honest thats insane. i can see a large majority of people not paying this. and soon prisons will be full of people for not paying it and the rapists and murders will be walking around the country free. things are hard and painful enough at the moment without been robbed again from this insane government.

elius

Don't mention negative equity. No one out there but guns to your head to pay 350,000+ on a town house with no back garden :rolleyes:. I thank a pray the lord that my father had the intelligence to see the bigger picture 5 yrs ago when i was ready to sign my life away.

I think its wrong but i'm not surprised one bit. I think the goverment need to have a good look at themselves. And start taking advice from people who no what the fook there talking about..

DavidAye

Why are we Irish so accepting of new taxes that the government throws at us? - water taxes, property taxes and the ludicrous carbon tax.:mad:
If such an incease on baseline taxes was suggested in any other European country there would be mass demonstrations. The media and government backed economists are also towing the line telling us that this is inevitable ... so was cutting pensioners medical cards until they decided to do something about it.

There is NO validity in the arguement that we should have a property tax because many other countries have one. Most of these countries do not have the same levels of direct and indirect taxes that we have. Also, other countries tend to get much more in return for their taxes. We are a small minded 'cute' people so unfortunately these traits and associated behaviours are carried through into the governments we vote in, ie they cannot be trusted to spend our taxes wiseley, efficiently and honestly.


I will strongly resist a property tax for the following reasons:

- I already pay a substantial amount in direct and indirect taxes
- I have paid a substantial stamp duty on my home
- Stamp duty was paid from taxed income (double taxation)
- Its not morally right to tax a home that I have worked to buy


If the government want to make savings, I suggest that they:
- increase income tax by one or two %
- increase taxes on tabacco and alcohol
- Rollback on the expenditures that they comitted to since 2003 - including social welfare and public service pay & pensions, ie take on the Unions.


Stop rolling over and lobby your local TDs to remove this proposal for once and for all!


David
Dublin.

tails_naf

I heard a good one the other day - the stats didn't apply to Ireland, but I would be very interested in hearing what the numbers for Ireland are.

It basically is about increasing tax on the very wealthy and goes something like:

The top 5% in the country already pay 50% of the total tax take of the country - we can't raise it anymore!

Sounds fair enough at first - except the top 5% of the country have 90% of the wealth!

Anyone know what the top 5% in Ireland earn as a % of total earnings in Ireland, and what the top 5% in Ireland pay as a % of total tax take?

ardmacha

Why are we Irish so accepting of new taxes that the government throws at us? - water taxes, property taxes and the ludicrous carbon tax.

Perhaps because they realise that the country is broke, and as responsible citizens they wish to do contribute their bit.

- I already pay a substantial amount in direct and indirect taxes

you do not pay enough as a citizen, Ireland's tax take is low and well below expenditure

- I have paid a substantial stamp duty on my home

Persons buying houses recently should be exempt for a period of years. I don't suppose that you received mortgage interest relief or the first time buyer's grant?

- Stamp duty was paid from taxed income (double taxation)

So was VAT, motor tax, etc

- Its not morally right to tax a home that I have worked to buy

Presumably you also worked to buy all of the other things that are subject to tax.

- increase income tax by one or two %

So tax work even more, that will help.

- increase taxes on tabacco and alcohol

Newry traders would approve of that

Rollback on the expenditures that they comitted to since 2003 - including social welfare and public service pay & pensions,

Public sector pay and welfare has already been reduced. More taxes are needed to make up the amount that was paid in stamp duty in 2003.

CptMackey

Next thing they will be doing is taxing windows and other stupid ideas.

Im sick of FF and the greens. Time to get them out and hang them all