INCOME TAX DOWNTURN
Accountants are reporting that fewer income tax returns are being filed this year, with many of them noticing a rise in the number of people finding it hard to pay the Revenue straight away, according to The Sunday Business Post.
Tag: Personal finance
BANK CARDS
The once ubiquitous Laser card, launched by Irish banks in 1996 as part of an initiative to replace cheques, could become redundant as early as next year following a decision by Bank of Ireland to switch its customers to Visa, The Sunday Times reports.
TURN OFF THE LIGHT
When the lights go out and the heating gets turned off things must be really bad financially. The energy regulator has finally acknowledged that individuals who allow this to happen are the ones who are least able to pay disconnection fees of up to €197.
HEALTH INSURANCE
It’s that time of year again when health insurers warn there is no alternative to hiking premiums if standards of cover are to be maintained. VHI is first out of the blocks and their plaintiff cry is given lead-story status in the business section of The Sunday Times, with the state insurer calling on the government to increase the health insurance levy by almost 50% next year.
IT’s THE ECONOMY STUPID!
This week’s Sunday newspapers invented a whole new genre of misery lit with the main theme being the sheer scale of the economic crises in which we find ourselves. The analogy doesn’t end there: the coverage does tend to induce page-turning and the ending doesn’t look pretty.
COMPLETING YOUR 2009 TAX RETURN
The annual Sunday Business Post supplement ahead of October 31 self-assessment tax deadline weighs in this year at 14 pages, covering every implication for both individuals and companies.
TAXING PENSIONS
The €2.7 billion paid by the government to retired public sector workers will have to be taxed further and the Croke Park agreement will become null and void as the price Ireland must pay to stay out of the European bailout fund, a leading credit ratings analyst has told The Sunday Tribune.
FINANCIAL GURU GETS IT WRONG
Sometimes it’s hard not to feel like a complete fool when viewing life from hindsight. Why O why didn’t we see this coming – how differently life would have turned out. Well, console yourself with the thought that it wasn’t just you!
PAT KENNY’S PENSION
Broadcaster Pat Kenny’s pension fund has been hammered by the collapse in global property markets and Irish banking shares, he told The Sunday Times.
Kenny, 62, is an independent contractor and does not have an RTE pension to fall back on.
“My pension, like everyone else’s, has been devastated,” he said. “We were all told property and shares were safe places to invest. There is virtually no-one who has not lost out.”
Kenny and Gay Byrne are joint investors in one project that will be taken over by NAMA later this year. They invested in the Four Seasons hotel in Budapest as part of a syndicate put together by financier Derek Quinlan. That syndicate now owes Anglo Irish Bank €30m.
He also invested in AIB and Bank of Ireland shares for many years.
“They were prudent investments. I tried to spread the risk around and, lo and behold, you get caught.”
Meanwhile, The Sunday Independent highlights one group of “retirees” who won’t have too many financial worries. Four TDs who have declared their intention not to stand at the next election – Tom Kitt, Mary Upton, Liz McManus and Olwyn Enright – will share a lump-sum payment plus pension worth around €12m.
Under the current system, the four will receive a termination allowance equivalent to two months’ salary. They will then receive a further €36,906 over the next six months followed by payments between €20,000 and €32,000 until the termination payment runs out. A total of €1.1m.
Based on current pay levels, they will each receive a tax-free pension lump sum of €147,636 and then every month for the rest of their lives those with more than 20 years’ service will receive half of their current annual salary of €98,000.
Nice work if you can get it.
PENSIONS
Almost 50% of people nearing retirement don’t expect to be able to maintain their current standard of living after they pack in the day job, according to a survey by investment company Axa Financial reported in The Sunday Business Post.
DIVORCE
The old cliché that it is the children who lose out in any divorce could be extended to the husband as well, according to The Sunday Business Post, which found that the courts ejected 99% of men from the family home, giving one spouse the sole right of residence.
LESS BOND FOR YOUR BUCK
Prize bonds seem to be a substantial attraction for some people – but Jill Kerby in the Sunday Times is not one of them. People spent €370 million buying bonds last year, up 32 per cent on 2008. Out of a total prize fund that topped €1 billion, however, the company paid out just €28 million. Kerby says she has never understood why people would tie up their money in prize bonds in perpetuity.
JOHNNY RONAN
Property magnate and renowned bon viveur Johnny Ronan commands widespread coverage across news and business pages in all the broadsheets as his debts – personal and corporate – are laid bare under the Nama process.