A group of tax investors in the Portlaoise Heritage hotel are suing their tax consultant and an adviser involved in the deal, says the Sunday Times. The group are examining various legal remedies “on account of their personal recourse to ACC Bank, which funded the four-star hotel, for interest payments totalling over €1million a year”.
The Portlaoise Heritage hotel has been in receivership since June 2010. Experts say it’s unusual for tax investor syndicates to find themselves liable for interest payments in this way.
The wealth of the average household fell by €100,000 between late 2008 and the end of 2010, mainly due to the collapse in property prices, The Sunday Business Post reports.
Who needs to raise income tax when you have a plethora of levies to choose from? Owners of second properties – or who even only have one property but who perhaps can’t keep up the mortgage repayments and are renting it out to someone else – have just over a week left to stump up €200 for the privilege.
One in three homeowners who have taken out a mortgage since 2004 now find themselves in negative equity, according to Central Bank figures, The Sunday Business Post reports. The Central Bank estimates around one in eight of all Irish households are in negative equity but the figures rise dramatically for those who took out their mortgages more recently.
Analysis of the bank stress tests and details of the restructuring dominated the headlines this weekend. The estimated bill for rescuing the Irish banking sector increased by €24 billion last week and now stands at €70bn with only two main banks remaining as financial “pillars” – Bank of Ireland and an AIB/ESB hybrid. Irish Life & Permanent will sell off its life assurance arm and permanenttsb will be hived off as a niche mortgage bank or wound down.
