Workers Solidarity Movement

A bit of great news as the year closes - Apple have been told they owe 13 billion to the Irish state. Great news now in terms of housing, healthcare and eduction where that money is badly needed. But also great news in the long term for workers everywhere as its a blow against corporate tax avoidance.

As the 2016 General election got underway lobby groups had already set out their stall in terms of what they do and don't want to see in government policy. IBEC (the Irish Business and Employers Confederation) have launched their manifesto and have begun hosting political debates in plush surroundings. One of their most prominent calls to politicians is to leave the universal social charge untouched, not abolished, not reduced, and not modified to relieve lower earners from paying it.

The USC is often described in the media as Ireland's most hated tax, and it's easy to see why this might be so, it's applied to even those who are not earning enough to pay tax, or support themselves and their families.

Recent studies in the North have shown that the rich really are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer.

It is no secret that household charges are set to rise due to ongoing “austerity” measures by Capitalist governments.

Today, research from PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers accountancy firm) indicated that households in the North will be hit hardest in the UK by this rise in charges.
 

It's not really a secret to anyone paying attention but Renua have really blown their cover with their pre-budget submission. Far from being any sort or radical departure they are yet another party for the wealthiest 1% who have been plundering our labour with the aid of every previous government.

As Michael Taft explains "Renua has called for a flat-rate tax. It represents a massive transfer from the lowest income groups to the highest income groups. It will require low and middle income groups to fund not only their own tax cuts but even higher tax cuts for those on much higher incomes.
... they want to cut inheritance tax to 20 percent while raising thresholds to €500,000. Someone inheriting €1 million would gain over €150,000."

Rich people in Ireland as elsewhere are good at not paying taxes. When you give them a chance to prove you wrong we get figures that show that in 2013 just 15 of the super wealthy paid a total of €1.8m.

Who are these rich people and how do they do it? By rich we mean that you have an income of more than €1 million rolling into you from around the world, and that you have assets of more than €5 million here. That is some wealth right there. How they manage it is that whilst they might live here they register to pay tax in a low-tax haven like Malta or Monaco.

How many could we house, educate and care for with 19 billion? Our government is currently furiously fighting the European Union to prevent Apple paying us back taxes it owes us. There has been a lot of ‘concern’ about government plans to spend 48 million looking after 4000 people fleeing warfare in Syria and Iraq. The government and the media defend there ‘our own’ is first - the super rich in Ireland and elsewhere!

The vast sums of our money that the state gave to Denis O’Brien are hard to understand. None of us are ever likely to see one million, short of winning the lotto, never mind 336 million, the amount written-off when O’Brien acquired Siteserv Group, Topaz Group and Beacon Private Hospital.

But here is a comparison that helps put the real cost in context. It’s been reported this week that a number of rape crisis centres may have to close because of escalating cash difficulties. These are caused by the loss of €240,000 in core funding. The state funding body Tusla explicitly claimed that the cuts had to happen in order to to make the best use of limited resources.

The three debt write-offs the O’Brien companies got are the equivalent of 1,400 years worth of that core funding. If Catherine Murphy’s Dáil allegation about the preferential interest 1.25% rate he was given are correct then that cost us 30 millions a year, which is around 125 years core funding for every year the loan is not repaid in interest terms alone.

Campaigners against the property tax have said that the tax, which is being boycotted by huge numbers of people, is “totally unnecessary” and that the government should scrap it “unless it is prepared for a major battle with an angry public.” “The government has claimed it hopes to raise €500million from the property tax,” said Gregor Kerr, spokesperson for the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes (CAHWT). “But this is €500million that ordinary people – who have already suffered 5 years of austerity – simply don’t have.”