Gombeen Man has always been sceptical about the continued availabilty of property-based tax incentive schemes - in the form of Section 23s, for instance - that allow investors to write off tax on rental income on their properties. How - even in Ireland - did it make sense to keep them going at the height of the property boom?
Brian "U-turn" Cowen has been talking about getting rid of them for years - but every time Gombeen Man opens one of the Sunday papers he is assailed by pages of property-based tax dodging schemes. So obviously they must have stockpiled them in expectation of the coming slowdown.
It would be interesting to know how many (if any) of FF TDs Frank Fahey's 7 Irish properties were tax-based. Fahey's property interests are great, and also include "part-ownership" of another "22 units here, and in France and Belgium" (Metro March 14th).
Thankfully, the property inflation of the past decade: largely fuelled by well-off investors backed by Government subsidies - in a kind of reverse socialism - has come to an end.
See
http://gombeennation.blogspot.com/2008/03/property-crash-and-economic-slowdown.html
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2 comments:
Because there are checks and balances every politician in this country has only one aim. That is to get as wealthy as possible while the going is good. And who could blame them when they have to answer to no one for wrongdoing. They talk about transparency knowing right well that there is no transparency. The reality is, that not one of the people who elected them know anything about what they get up to.
The issues that they were elected to sort out remain on the long finger for YEARS and it's always someone else who is responsible.
Democracy in Ireland is a joke!
Yep, 'fraid so, Paddy. A credible opposition is a necessary element of a functioning democracy, but sadly this country has no such thing. Think that's a real problem, and it's no wonder so many people increasingly don't bother to vote, thinking "they're all the same". And they are!
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