Property tax or water charges ‘not in next budget’
By Conor Ryan, Political Correspondent
Monday, August 24, 2009
PROPERTY tax and water charges are unlikely to be introduced in December’s budget, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has said.
He said he would concentrate on spending cuts in December’s budget and leave property and water taxes for another year. But the carbon tax will come into effect in 2010.
In terms of new taxation opportunities "generally the burden was high enough" after the last two budgets.
However a prominent member of the Commission on Taxation, which recommended these additional taxes, asked the Government not to shirk on the difficult measures it proposed.
Tom Arnold, director of Concern, said the 17-member commission’s recommendations were designed to help the country stay within its commitments on national debt levels.
He said despite negative reaction to leaks of the report – which will be delivered to Mr Linehan this week – he believed it reflected a path to a more reliable income stream.
"Most other countries have both property taxes and water taxes. So to some extent I don’t think the proposals here are all that radical," he said.
Mr Arnold was speaking after he delivered the Bishop Stock address to the Humbert Summer School in Ballina, Co Mayo, and said reaction should be tempered by the need to balance the books. "I have seen ... the reaction coming out against the property tax. And there is a lot of reaction coming out against the proposal to tax child benefit.
"We need a more stable system of property taxation not to be all dependent on the stamp duty which went up but then just disappeared,’ he said.
Mr Arnold also asked for the Government to honour its commitments in terms of foreign aid.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he was not sold on the necessity for a property tax. "I am not wedded to property tax, but I don’t want that to be suggested that we are not prepared to take the decisions that need to be made," he told a Sunday newspaper.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, August 24, 2009
