Granny Bashers Goverment

billythepig

i see our goverment are bashing the pensioners again,
bearly one month after the budget, they sent out letters to the pensioners telling them they could be liable for tax from their pensions in the future,

after working most of their lives, me poor parents are bearly surviving on the miserable pension they are on at the moment and anymore cuts on it would rightly feck em up,

the goverment are a disgrace.

Sully

From my understanding from the brief reading iv done on the matter.

Firstly, its got very little to do with the Government. It was the Revenue Commissioners which is a state department responsible for the assessment and collection of taxes and duties in Ireland. It wasn't an error or a "lets go get money" by any of the government parties.

Secondly, this is where I am unsure, but it would appear to be mostly an error with those that are effected by this letter. It would appear that people did not declared their state pension, had under-reported their value, or had seen their circumstances change in some other way without notifying Revenue. The problem wasn't noticed until records on over 560k+ pension recipients with the Department of Social Protection. The Revenue notified them of the problem and that they would be claiming it back.

Basically, that's my understanding.

murphaph

billythepig wrote: »

i see our goverment are bashing the pensioners again,
bearly one month after the budget, they sent out letters to the pensioners telling them they could be liable for tax from their pensions in the future,

after working most of their lives, me poor parents are bearly surviving on the miserable pension they are on at the moment and anymore cuts on it would rightly feck em up,

the goverment are a disgrace.

Miserable pension? It's extremely generous and much more than your parents would or could have expected to receive during their working lives. Give it a rest will you. By the way, there have been no cuts to the state pension since this whole crisis began! The pensioners are THE most protected cohort of the electorate.

henryporter

And they're the main ones responsible for the mess we're in - not many young couples could afford houses in the previous decade due to the nouveau landlord class that gobbled up everything for their retirement - now they all sit there pretending it wasn't them.

Btw, there are three classes of pensioner - those who only have the state pension, those with the state pension and their private sector pension and those with the public service pension - so it seems that the government is mimicking what its doing to the rest of society: squeezing the middle!

Dob74

billythepig wrote: »

i see our goverment are bashing the pensioners again,
bearly one month after the budget, they sent out letters to the pensioners telling them they could be liable for tax from their pensions in the future,

after working most of their lives, me poor parents are bearly surviving on the miserable pension they are on at the moment and anymore cuts on it would rightly feck em up,

the goverment are a disgrace.

If they have a miserable pension they will be ok.
Pensioner's(a couple) pay tax on income over 40k. Everything under is not taxable.
These pensioner's should having been paying tax all along. Our foolish civil service let them slide through the cracks.

Pete_Cavan

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0106/breaking8.html

The Revenue Commissioners have refused to rule out backdating taxes following the announcement 115,000 pensioners will have to pay extra taxes due to an under-calculation of their liabilities.


The tax bills will affect people who are receiving both a State pension and a secondary private pension or salary.

Why should anyone, pensioner or otherwise, be absolved from paying taxes that they are liable for but were not charged due to an under-calculation of their liabilities?

Hardly granny bashing.

bleg

How would you feel if it was I, a 24 year old, who didn't declare all of my income and evaded tax? What would you label the government then?

this is not a ranting forum
there is also a thread already here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056505379