budget bore!

[holio]

Alot of hype about the budget coming up next week.
They're predicting a 63% hyke in motor tax which i presume will be those uber economical tax band A and B cars and the electric cars.
Any expentancy to hit us that are being charged by the engine capacity?

[StewyD32]

You'll be seeing my in court as I'm not paying out more than half extra on extra tax to bail out the c@nt'n banks.
Maybe it's just the socialist in me but their punishing the wrong people here in the budget once again.
Can't people figure out the majority of the parties are in eachothers pockets and people are sheep by voting them in....... In that being said what are we doing about it....... NOTHING

[holio]

Makes you wonder if wel ever back to the stage where your motor tax actually goes to the maintenance of roads and not to bring in more money for the government. Alot of roads now are more classed as tracks than roads over all the potholes.
Think th main problem is, you can do what you like about it but itl be brushed under the carpet as soon as a few people turn their backs. Occupy dame street as an example, not exactly making the papers anymore. I know its not been brushed under the carpet but you tend to forget people are out there trying to make a differance unless you drive/walk along dame street on a regular basis.
Cant remember the last time i seen that in the paper. Ha ha mind you, i cant exactly remember the last time i picked up a paper.

[Myfeckin FTO]

I'm already paying 1566Euro for a 1998 4x4 and have done so over the past few years on 350Z's/Murano/Range Rover Sport etc

Really have reached my personal tipping point though - simply won't renew my motor tax if they increase it - I'd rather pay the fine - its much cheaper. Selling a larger engined car (difficult to do in curent climate) to buy a newer lower tax rate car is in itself economically unfeasible for the vast majority of people (myself included) so you're caught between a rock and a hard place.

The government think they're going to make more money by squeezing the tax payer on VAT and Road Tax but the reality is that people don't have the money to give/spend and they will end up with less then if they actually dropped the rates on both (and boosted the economy). I suppose its hard to see that when you're looking down from the heights of your pedestal in Leinster House.

If those ratbag politicians actually wanted to save this country money then they would sort out the culture of wastage, wage increases, crazy pensions and overspending that has been allowed develop in the public sector since 2000. They must bring their public expenditure back into line with what it was before the boom before squeezing normal taxpayers who have already been badly hit from this recession.

When I heard FG/Labour make pre election promises of cutbacks in public spending I presumed they were going to do something about the crazy pensions and private/public sector pay gaps not to mention knocking the quango's on the head but from recent comments from the Minister of Finance it seems like their idea of cutting public spending is to charge for medical cards, increase CO2 taxes (cause you know they care SO much for the environment) and reduce child allowance while keeping (and in fact increasing) their current public paypackets and pensions.

All this to appease unsecured bondholders who should have been burnt day one of the crisis. Spending 80 billion to keep Anglo afloat was another absolutely idiotic move and despite the fact this country (and some would say Europe as a whole) has almost run out of time the eejits in power in Ireland think that finding an extra 3 billion in the pockets of the already broke Irish taxpayer is going to go some way to solving their problem and saving their ass. Of course it will all become apparent when the economy collapses and then we'll get the same lines trotted out - "hindsight is 20/20, foresight blah blah" etc. Hindsight is of no use to anyone - the changes that were needed to be made should have been made and the changes that need to be made now need to happen NOW.

Perhaps its already too little - too late.

[Muad_dib77]

Agreed - politicians aren't doing it right.

Rather than punishing everybody by upping fees for this and that - benefits need to be means tested and public spending needs some restructure..perhaps som eof the bloated public workforce could get reassinged to means testing projects?

Problem with not paying your roadtax - atleast my neck of the woods - is that you'd be fairly sure to get picked up within a week (those platye reader boxes work!) AND the Gardas aren't as cuddlywuddly as they used to be when it comes to tax issues...they will sieze your car and leave you there, if you get stopped on the motorway they'll make sure you're not on the motorway - but anywhere else they have no obligation to drop you home or otherwise.

While we're at it - Nama is a pile of poop..Why should private businesses get government support..business is risk, if it fails it fails and as a business owner there are consequences - really bad ones, like loss of home, car, phone, potted plants and stuff...why should the nation pay for your inablitiy to run your business earning a livelyhood..

Oh I dont know - I can't even vote untill I pay 750e to get dual citizenship.. GROWL!

[colm_mcm]

It's sensationalist journalism

I reckon band a and b emissions tax is going up by that amount which is fair I think

Cc based tax likely to rise by 5%

[Mustang]

I don't have any huge objection to increasing the band A & B rates -they were too low to start with (relative to the cc based system). Don't give us the beal bocht if you could afford to buy a new car in the middle of a recession. But the blanket 5% increase on the already high cc based system is misguided. I believe they have already passed the point of deminishing returns -people not taxing, scraping, abandoning, their cars, etc.

This is a typical Irish solution to an Irish problem -we'll up the price, (assume demand will remain at the same level) hey presto more income -job done.
Economics 101 -Fail.

We saw it with the last vat hike -exodus up north for shopping. We've seen it with publicans -uping the price of a pint to try and compensate for decreased foot fall -result pubs going out of business weekly.

Higher volume lower margin is what we need -unfortunately Ireland doesn't do stack em high sell em cheap. The concept of lowering the price just does not compute.

Then there is the directly related issue of duty and VAT on fuel. The increase in the price of fuel will curb demand for fuel -resulting in less consumption -which will at least partially if not totally offset the increase due to the price rise. Again a smaller group of people paying more -instead of a larger population making smaller contributions.

Look at theIRISH DEMAND FOR PETROL it's been falling steadily since 2008. Even since the start of the year it's down ~10% that's a massive decrease.

And before anyone says that's because everyone bought a '08 daysul,

look at the IRISH DEMAND FOR DIESEL With the exception of a small increase in march 2008 -the demand for diesel has been falling since 2008 also. This is partly due to all those 1000mpg 520D's on the road -but is mostly due to people travelling less -i.e. decreasing demand. Add a price increase to already falling demand -and revenues will only go in one direction

Annoy the whole population - while decreasing revenue

[optical illusion]

Can't really add much to what's been added above only that if things keep going the way they are the FTO will be going into storage and I'll be buying an economical sh1tbox to keep me going. I'm absolutely dreading my renewal in Jan.

[holio]

I completly agree with mustang. Our government and political parties are a joke.
Im 27, working since im 14 and working full time since im 16, iv spent roughly just over 6months in total since leaving school unemployed and on benefits. Iv (for my age group) added a considerable amount of pennies to the revenues pockets and i wont be the smallest bit surprised on monday that ill be one of the targets hit hard. Iv contributed alot and asked for incredibly little, infact id say roughly 60-70% of what iv received off the government would be my own monies (tax rebates).
Very little keeping me here now at this stage. Iv lost 3 childhood friends and dozens of drinking buddies to this recession.
Youd almost think the powers in position want any and every skilled worker to flee the country!