Government to Introduce the graduated property tax early

Following hot on the heals of the December 7th budget, the government (small g) has decided to bring forward plans for a graduated property tax to be introduced in 2013, a year earlier then the EU/IMF bailout decreed.
Its likely to be based upon your house value, and it could mean that the €100 property tax in 2012 could grow by 30 times that amount for certain householders:

According to the Irish Times:

Under the commission’s proposed scheme a charge of €188 would be paid on houses valued at up to €150,000; €563 on houses between €150,000 and €300,000; €938 on houses up to €450,000; €1,313 on houses valued at up to €600,000; €1,699 on houses up to €750,000; €2,188 on houses valued at up to €1 million; €3,125 on houses up to €1.5 million and 0.25 per cent of the valuation on houses over that.

FS

'No guarantee' charge to stay at €100

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan today admitted that the household charge (announced only 24 hours ago) could not be guaranteed to remain at €100 for the next two years. He said that it was up to the minister for finance to review the charge in the run up to budget 2013. The idea is that the flat rate charge will be replaced by metered water charges and a valuation based property tax in 2014.

€160m will be collected by this charge next year to help pay for local authority services. There will be exemptions but they are few, they include:
-People in receipt of mortgage interest supplement
-People living in local authority housing
-People living in 'Ghost Estates'

Pensioners and people on social welfare will be liable to pay it, as will people who already pay a second home tax. The government has tried to sweeten the bitter pill by saying that it equates to 'only' €2 per week. That's all very well to say, its a drop in the ocean for the wealthy but makes up a massive 1% of your income should you be a single person reliant on social welfare.

Joe Higgins and the other members of the United left Alliance have announced that they will organise a civil disobedience campaign against the tax, encouraging non payment.

Roll on a 'Autumn' of discontent.

FS

Household charge set at €100

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has announced a new temporary “household charge” of €100 per year.
The new tax, viewed as a forerunner to a property tax and a water charge, will be levied on the estimated 1.8 million householders in the State, potentially raising €160 million in revenue in 2012.
Commercial properties and social housing as well as charity-run and sheltered homes are among properties exempt from the tariff. Younger people struggling to make home loan repayments, who qualify under the mortgage interest supplement scheme, can also qualify for a waiver.
The charge, which was agreed by Cabinet this morning, will be introduced in January next year, with householders given three months to pay up. Late payment penalties have been set at €10 a month.
Mr Hogan said he understood people are already suffering levies, charges and interest rate hikes, but he insisted he had no other option. “I’d prefer not to be introducing any charges but I’m obliged because we have ceded our economic sovereignty as part of the EU/IMF agreement, to bring in a property tax,” he said.
Admitting the tax could be fairer, he said it was a temporary two-year measure ahead of a property tax based on a value in 2014, which would be a “much fairer system”.
At a briefing in Government Buildings, the Minister said the new levy was an interim measure ahead of a full property tax, based on a property valuation system, and was separate from planned water charges. The water tax is to be introduced in 2014.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0726/breaking19.html

Water and Property tax saga rumbles on

The honeymoon period is definitely over for the coalition partners, wage agreement abolition, water and property taxes, college fees and pension levies all seem to be bugbears between the two parties. The one thing this is lacking at the moment is detail. We should expect to get some definition in the coming weeks. Either way it means less money in all our pockets.

FS

Property & Water charges in 2012

It is now almost certain that flat rate property and water charges will be implemented in Budget 2012.

The water tax (or 'utility charge' as minister Phil Hogan is calling it) will be flat at somewhere between €150 and €200 per household. The revenue arising from this will be used to install water meters countrywide so in future the charge will be levied on a pay per use basis with some threshold of free water for each household.

Property tax will also be flat at around €100, irrespective of weather your house is a mansion or a maisonette. This will be replaced in due course with a property specific 'site value tax'.

Taxing people on a flat rate basis is regressive so why do it like this? Well both of these measures are outlined as necessities in the IMF/EU bailout, this is simply the cheapest and fastest way for the government to introduce them.

The always excellent Professor Morgan Kelly give an insight into the bailout in today's Irish times, http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0507/1224296372123.html .