With many people transferring money out of Ireland to foreign banks, some will be considering going the whole hog and leaving altogether. The Sunday Times says France could be about to add yet another reason for wealthy individuals to relocate there by unveiling new plans for a wealth tax overhaul next year.
The government is considering extending the current tax reliefs for the film industry to the gaming sector, The Sunday Business Post reports.
This week the Revenue is due to release the latest module in its comprehensive programme of mandatory electronic payment and filing of taxes – and it will have a profound effect for the almost 50% of businesses who still shy away from ROS.
The Eircom Employee Share Trust (ESOT), which owns 35% of the telco, is in talks with the Department of Finance to extend its tax breaks that are due to expire in 2014, according to The Sunday Times.
Lawyers and actuaries are busy advising clients how to mitigate or even avoid the 0.6% pension levy according to Jill Kerby in The Sunday Times, who is telling people with private pensions to ask their trustees, administrators or advisers about the effect of the levy on their projected incomes in retirement.
The Institute of Chartered Public Accountants (CPA) is warning the re-emergence of the black economy could threaten Ireland’s chances of recovery, The Sunday Post reports.
The number of claims for tax relief on service charges has risen dramatically since the beginning of the year, according to The Sunday Business Post.
In addition to the recent imposition of the Pension Levy, the Finance Bill 2011 reduced the maximum pension fund size. The maximum allowable pension fund on retirement for tax purposes (known as the Standard Fund Threshold (SFT)), has been reduced from €5.4 million to €2.3 million.
It may have been well flagged by www.taxation.ie over the past weeks, but this weekend the front pages of the newspapers eventually caught up. The broadsheets are awash with the backlash generated by the Government’s unprecedented raid on private pensions to fund its Jobs Initiative announced on Tuesday.
And he hasn’t gone away, you know. Former Sindo business editor turned TD Shane Ross pens a caustic piece for his former employer expanding on his very public denunciations of pension fund managers in the dail chamber during the week.
The Sindo is nothing if not a broad church – it is one of the hallmarks of its enduring success. One of those to whom Ross is probably referring – the chief executive of Standard Life Ireland Nigel Dunne – writes elsewhere in the same newspaper of a need to rebalance the 0.6% grab to include public sector workers.
Whatever about the moral and constitutional repugnance of the proposals and the non-performance of fund managers who extract large fees, others have been busy getting to getting to grips with the bottom line. The Sunday Business Post reports private pension funds could drop in value by 21% if the new levy becomes a permanent fixture. And let’s face it, what Government is likely to voluntarily release its grip on any revenue stream, particularly given the situation in which this country finds itself for the foreseeable future?