€50 septic tank inspection or 1c text-message tax?

My name is URL · 15-09-2011 10:06PM #1

So the governemt is required by Europe to start inspecting septic tanks, at a cost of €50 for 450,000 homes across the country. It'll raise about €23 million in revenue, out of which wages and other expenses have to be paid.

If a 1c tariff on text-messages was introduced, it'd raise more than €60,000,000 per year in revenue and with a fraction of the costs attached to it, and that's a conservative estimate based on 2006 numbers.

Which would you prefer to pay; €50 once off for something which will be of little or no financial benefit to the country, or, 1c for every text you send, knowing that it will go towards more worthy projects, and more importantly that everyone is paying it?

Merch · 15-09-2011 10:14PM

Text-message tariff

So you want a 1 cent tax added to the cost of everyones text messages just to pay for inspections of septic tanks of 450,000 peoples homes?

But everyone that send s texts doesnt have a septic tank?

Are you also saying the inspection only costs €50 per tank? I thought it was much more.

This 1cent tax you approve of sounds very like adding a premium on all insurances to pay off quinn or pmpa. Let them pay their own inspections.
It isn't because it doesnt benefit me, but because it only benefits the people of each household for something they should be responsible for anyway.
Unless they are happy for their effluent to leak into the watercourses near where they live?

I will happily pay a 1cent tax per text message to fix A&E's or get people off hospital trollies, even if it never affects me/if i never have use for it.

red menace · 15-09-2011 10:14PM

Why choose?
Lets do both!

Samich · 15-09-2011 10:15PM

1c text tax, 1c is nothing!

namloc1980 · 15-09-2011 10:16PM

Text-message tariff

The septic tank inspections are an EU environmental requirement that the Govt has to implement. Why should I have to pay a text tax (on top of 21% VAT might I add) just so some boggers can get a free septic tank inspection??

Caveman1 · 15-09-2011 10:16PM

What I you have free texts to certain networks would you still be required to pay the 1c for each text?

red menace · 15-09-2011 10:17PM

My name is URL wrote: »

So the governemt is required by Europe to start inspecting septic tanks, at a cost of €50 for 450,000 homes across the country. It'll raise about €23 million in revenue, out of which wages and other expenses have to be paid.

If a 1c tariff on text-messages was introduced, it'd raise more than €60,000,000 per year in revenue and with a fraction of the costs attached to it, and that's a conservative estimate based on 2006 numbers.

Which would you prefer to pay; €50 once off for something which will be of little or no financial benefit to the country, or, 1c for every text you send, knowing that it will go towards more worthy projects, and more importantly that everyone is paying it?

Keeping raw sewage out of water courses is not worthy?
Less sick people better water quality not a good thing?

red menace · 15-09-2011 10:18PM

namloc1980 wrote: »

The septic tank inspections is an EU environmental requirement that the Govt has to implement. Why should I have to pay a text tax (on top of 21% VAT might I add) just so some boggers can get a free septic tank inspection??

Nothing was said about using the text tax to pay for the Septic tanks?

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 15-09-2011 10:18PM

We don't even have a sceptic tank at home, I wonder does that mean we get off or we're in trouble?

I'm not a fan of the tank tax but it would be interesting to see how the phone co's would respond to the text tax and how they would incorporate it into their packadges

Edit : A property tax is inevitable, this should cover any sceptic tank tax to be fair

namloc1980 · 15-09-2011 10:20PM

Text-message tariff

red menace wrote: »

Nothing was said about using the text tax to pay for the Septic tanks?

So why are they being asked as a one or the other??

Bens · 15-09-2011 10:20PM

Anyway. I dont have a septic tank, so I think the charge should be €1000 a year. It would be a fair tax.
If I had one, i would like no spetic tank tax please. It would be unfair then.

Why not tax posts to message boards and facebook.
10c each post to start.
For each 1000 posts in your post count it then doubles.
Someone with 3000 posts pays 30c a post.
The benefit is that the more people give out about it the more they pay.
And it dissuades people from wasting huge parts of their work day posting on the web.

mikemac · 15-09-2011 10:20PM

namloc1980 wrote: »

so some boggers can get a free septic tank inspection??

Boggers are paying the same taxes yet they don't use council sewage services or ask the council to connect them.
Maybe everyone connected to the council should pay €50 extra too? Works both ways

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 15-09-2011 10:21PM

mikemac wrote: »

Boggers are paying the same taxes yet they get council sewage services.
Maybe everyone connected to the council should pay extra too? Works both ways

Boggers have also been paying for their water and refuse for years

mikemac · 15-09-2011 10:24PM

It's true

Had to laugh at Joe Higgins acting indigently and parading himself to jail for his Dublin voters while here in North Tipp anyway, people have paid for water and the council contracted bin services to a private operator for years

Poor, poor city folk

stimpson · 15-09-2011 10:25PM

Double the septic tank charge and give me a 1c discount on text messages.

red menace · 15-09-2011 10:26PM

namloc1980 wrote: »

So why are they being asked as a one or the other??

Ask the OP that, I interpreted it as which tax would be preferable.
I could be wrong though I do have a long history of being wrong

Logical Fallacy · 15-09-2011 10:26PM

Mobile companies will fight a 1c text tax till the sun expands and swallows us all.

whatsamsn · 15-09-2011 10:27PM

I dont get this thread

So instead of home owners who have septic tanks getting charged €50 euro a year, put a 1c charge on all text messages to pay for it?

:pac: .. you serious? so get other people to pay for something right? is what this thread is really talking about.

Biggins · 15-09-2011 10:28PM

Both?

namloc1980 · 15-09-2011 10:29PM

Text-message tariff

mikemac wrote: »

It's true

Had to laugh at Joe Higgins acting indigently and parading himself to jail for his Dublin voters while here in North Tipp anyway, people have paid for water and the council contracted bin services to a private operator for years

Poor, poor city folk

If you choose to live in the middle of nowhere then don't expect general taxation to pay for a sewer pipe and a water pipe to your one off house.

My name is URL · 15-09-2011 10:29PM

Merch wrote: »

So you want a 1 cent tax added to the cost of everyones text messages just to pay for inspections of septic tanks of 450,000 peoples homes?

But everyone that send s texts doesnt have a septic tank?

Are you also saying the inspection only costs €50 per tank? I thought it was much more.

This 1 cent tax you approve of sounds very like adding a premium on all insurances to pay off quinn or pmpa. Let them pay their own inspections.
It isn't because it doesnt benefit me, but because it only benefits the people of each household for something they should be responsible for anyway.
Unless they are happy for their effluent to leak into the watercourses near where they live?

I will happily pay a 1cent tax per text message to fix A&E's or get people off hospital trollies, even if it never affects me/if i never have use for it.

It'll more than likely cost more, but the charge is €50. Money from other sources will need to be dipped into in order to pay for the initiative, which is why I think the text-charge is a better idea.

It's a scheme which Ireland doesn't really need right now, but we're bound to do it by the EU who are at the same time demanding that we meet the targets set out by them to repay our current debt. This stuff gets us into even more debt, or at least makes it more difficult for us to meet their conditions.

MrStuffins · 15-09-2011 10:30PM

Jaysus, this again!

A 1c text tax is a fantastically stupid idea! it only makes sense to morons, the same morons who would say "Yeah, i'm gonna sell single gloves in China. There's 1.3b people there, so even if I sell to just 1% of them i'll make a fortune".

It's a stupid idea!

Nonoperational · 15-09-2011 10:30PM

People will just use things like Viber and Whatsapp to avoid the 1C tax.

namloc1980 · 15-09-2011 10:31PM

Text-message tariff

mikemac wrote: »

Boggers are paying the same taxes yet they don't use council sewage services or ask the council to connect them.
Maybe everyone connected to the council should pay €50 extra too? Works both ways

No, if you choose to live in the countryside in your one off house then you can't expect the local council to run a pipe to every house. You must pay for the choices you make I'm afraid.

Merch · 15-09-2011 10:32PM

Text-message tariff

Adriana Magnificent Scrabble wrote: »

We don't even have a sceptic tank at home, I wonder does that mean we get off or we're in trouble?

I'm not a fan of the tank tax but it would be interesting to see how the phone co's would respond to the text tax and how they would incorporate it into their packadges

Edit : A property tax is inevitable, this should cover any sceptic tank tax to be fair

While I dont agree with a property tax on a main residence, I cant see if it were implemented how it should cover the septic tank?its a different thing.

mikemac wrote: »

Boggers are paying the same taxes yet they don't use council sewage services or ask the council to connect them.
Maybe everyone connected to the council should pay €50 extra too? Works both ways

Some form of rates for waste disposal may come eventually too, in reality the UK poll tax or whatever it is now called pays for services in the area they are collected in, refuse to some extent, police. The reality is if rates were being payed for such, they would be lower in higher density areas. I understand what you say about working both ways, but I dont think its what it comes down to. Its not about fairness but paying for services we get.

Adriana Magnificent Scrabble wrote: »

Boggers have also been paying for their water and refuse for years

I dont think its a good idea to bring up/create a rural/urban divide, its not about what we/they have been/should have been doing or how/if its fair.

whatsamsn · 15-09-2011 10:33PM

the idea of this is a complete joke!
"I wanna get someone else to pay" should be the thread title.

epgc3fyqirnbsx · 15-09-2011 10:34PM

namloc1980 wrote: »

If you choose to live in the middle of nowhere then don't expect general taxation to pay for a sewer pipe and a water pipe to your one off house.

Lets all move to dublin so and increase congestion, property prices, social problems etc etc
And you don't have to live in the middle f nowhere to need a sceptic tank. There are alrady a lot of freebies living in Dublin and thats fine, no problems with that. But by your argument there shouldn't be...

Anyway, like I said a property tax will be introduced, we're one of the few in the world without one, and this should incorporate such charges

krudler · 15-09-2011 10:35PM

everyone just get Viber, free texts for everyone!

MrStuffins · 15-09-2011 10:36PM

Of course. And normally something like this would show the Government's ignorance and failure to keep up with technology, but not in this case. Because nobody has proposed this 1c Text Tax in about 2 years.

If they had, they'd know that it is easy right now to send text messages through apps and use these apps as part of your data plan. if a 1c tax comes in, everyone will stop texting. Why should they pay when they can do it for free?

The OP should've maybe thought this through instead of resurrecting an old, and well debated, topic!

mikemac · 15-09-2011 10:38PM

Fianna Fáil abolish local rates [Jack Lynch as I remember]
Fine Gael introduce property taxes

I can see the posters already for the next election

My name is URL · 15-09-2011 10:39PM

gpf101 wrote: »

People will just use things like Viber and Whatsapp to avoid the 1C tax.

Why would people do that because of a 1c increase? Those suggesting that people would use Viber instead, most likely already use Viber =p

€50 septic tank inspection or 1c text-message tax?

Whi charge would you prefer? 52 votes

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