McCreevy raids the kitty

Victor

So with his budget today, Charlie McCreevy has engaged in some quite imaginative accounting, the type of accounting that could put us in more trouble that the giveaway budget of 1979 - when the then minister tried to bribe the country with, among other things, £5 per year car tax. That minister was Charles Haughey. And many of us remember what it was like in the 1980s after that budget.

Firstly, McCreevy has taken money from the central pension fund to pay for current spending – it’s akin to a company taking money from the company pension fund to boost profits.

Secondly, he is taking money held in the bank, saved over many years and saying that it is to be added to next year’s profit. It’s like the company taking the money it used to hold for cashflow adding it to the profits.

Thirdly, he is borrowing money from future years, by changing the time when companies pay their tax. Akin to adding part of next year’s profits to this year.

Fourthly, he is abandoning the practice of putting away a few shillings every year to pay for the inevitable rainy days (remember this is Ireland, it rains a lot). Typically this money ends up getting spent on unforeseen items like the Foot & Mouth crisis this year. However, he is only abandoning it only for one year, showing he doesn’t even believe in his own actions.

And finally, he is skimming the wages of the workers for the first few weeks of the year, so he can pay it back to them just before the budget. All the while taxing many people who are actually only getting the minimum wage.

In all he is fooking around with €3,037,000,000 of your money.

Come election time, be angry, very angry.

Links
http://www.ireland.com/special/budget/2002/
http://www.irlgov.ie/finance/budget/budget2002/bud02index.htm

sceptre

Originally posted by Victor

Thirdly, he is borrowing money from future years, by changing the time when companies pay their tax. Akin to adding part of next year’s profits to this year.

And the trouble with that is that the government always account for taxes on a "cash received" basis.

Which means that the books will never bloody balance.

Don't look at me - I'm not an accountant anymore.

Bard

Originally posted by Victor

In all he is fooking around with €3,037,000,000 of your money.

I have 3 billion euros?

hmmm... that'll be handy for Christmas!

billy the squid

well following the rumour that he was going to slap €1 on the smokes what happened to that one 10p wasnt much of an increase wouldnt that have generated some revenue for him

and vat has gone up from 20 percent to 21 percent

wasnt it at 21 percent when they started in government if they were going to change it back why did they bother lowering it in the first place

personally i did well out of the budget but am concerned at how he was allowed to raid the kitty for extra money. Wasnt that supposed to be for kept for us when the baby boomers reached retirement

If this happens year on year we are going to be back in the 1980s economy wise by 2010