Written by John O' Connor on September 14, 2009
Just some quick thoughts on the Commission on Taxation and Stamp Duty.
Stamp Duty created an Unbalanced Tax System
One of the main thrusts of the commission on taxation is that its purpose was not to increase the tax burden, but rather to distribute it more fairly.
However at the time the commission was put together, Stamp Duty produced a huge portion of the tax take in this country. At this stage it produces minimal return. In remaining Revenue neutral, the commission
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Written by John O' Connor on September 14, 2009
We’re introducing a redundancy section to our website to help explain a difficult and stressful topic. We will of course be focussing on Tax issues associated with Redundancy, but will look at other parts also.
Firstly, we would like to introduce an overview of Redundancy and Tax. Redundancy taxation is usually presented in a big pile on our plate, but we can break it down a bit to help understand it better. This is shown as a graphic below, with the
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Written by John O' Connor on September 7, 2009
Going through the Commission on Taxation report now and I’ll post some thoughts here.
Child Benefit v Maternity Benefit
First up, surprised to see the commission recommend some form of taxation of child benefit, but declare that Maternity Benefit should not be taxable. Why is this? Why are they given distinct treatments?
I’d appreciate your views as to why one should be taxed and not the other as that genuinely confuses me. To my mind, it would seem that the commission has taken
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Written by John O' Connor on September 7, 2009
Government approach to public consumption of reports findings
The commission on taxation report will be officially released today and it will be extensively covered in all medias.
There was initial talk that the findings would not be released and held for private use for the government in allowing them to make decisions in the next and following budget. But the approach eventually taken was to publish the report – indeed, more than that, they have gone to great efforts to leak
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Written by John O' Connor on September 2, 2009
Are we throwing money in the bin by not claiming tax refunds for the cost of our waste disposal?
This is one of the more commonly claimed tax credits, but still a large % of home owners and renters miss out on this.
Very simply? if you are paid any amount up €400 on waste disposal in a year, in the following year you can claim 20% of that amount as a tax credit. That’s up to €80.
For us, we paid €30
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Written by John O' Connor on August 25, 2009
Firstly, how maintenance payment is treated for Income Levy depends on whether you have voluntarily agreed to pay maintenance or if there is a legally enforceable agreement
Written by John O' Connor on August 21, 2009
The Commission on Taxation’s job was to make suggestions across the spectrum of tax and social payments and Child benefit is proving to be one of the most vexing issues. But they will be recommending to the Government next week that Child Benefit is made taxable. How would Taxing Child Benefit work?
Written by John O' Connor on August 17, 2009
So you have a new/existing mortgage or loan relating to your home and want to know how much you are due in mortgage interest relief. there are 3 questions you need to ask yourself in relation to this:
Have I an eligible loan?
Am I a First Time Buyer (FTB)?
What are the rates of relief?
We have looked at eligibility and FTB status before. Now it’s time to calculate the Relief!
Non-First time Buyers
If you are a non-First Time Buyer (non-FTB), you can now
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Written by John O' Connor on August 14, 2009
I see that a Canadian bank is in discussions with AIB (http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0814/aib.html)
It is unsure whether the bank is interested in the whole group or just the US business. If it were interested in the whole group, this could have very significant consequences.
Not least, this could have implications for NAMA. We have seen how the dutch owned ACC Bank have remained outside of NAMA and are effectively working against NAMA by instigating proceedings to get these toxic assets off their books.
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Written by John O' Connor on August 14, 2009
So much changed for mortgage holders in the April 2009 emergency Budget. Many who previously had mortgage interest relief lost it, and for others the amount they received changed.
We have already looked at eligiblility in a previous post (Here). Once you have checked that you are eligible, the next step is to see if you are deemed as a first time buyer or not a first time buyer. This has a huge effect on the amount of
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