Skip to main content

Rewards for people who left the country – Kick in the ass if you weathered the storms!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Rewards for people who left the country – Kick in the ass if you weathered the storms!

One of my pet hates is if a company promotes a really attractive Special Offer and then it says in the small print that it is only available to new customers. It is really a kick up the backside of the loyal long term customers who ensured that the company kept going. Instead there should always be an attractive offer for existing customers IN PARALLEL when a new customer offer is promoted. That offer for existing ones doesn’t have to be the same as for the new recruits, but it should also be attractive.

Bad enough when a phone or Internet company does it or a bank or insurance.But now it gets worse.

The bright lights in our current government are thinking about giving a tax discount to some of the people that have left the country to attract them to come back. Many who left, did so to earn more money elsewhere and many who stayed endured a fair amount of hardship during the recession years in Ireland. And by rewarding the ones who earned more away if they come back is really adding insult to injury.

It certainly makes sense to try to get people to come to Ireland if we have jobs here, but if a reward is considered for returning workers, then the ones that kept the country going shouldn’t be rewarded for their part in the recovery.

www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/tax-rate-returning-emigrants-ireland

Economy, Odd, Society, Taxes, ,

Sugar Drink Tax? Another nonsensical idea of our government!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Sugar Drink Tax? Another nonsensical idea of our government!

Taxes are raised in Ireland (and most other countries) not to regulate something or to improve something directly related to the taxed item, but for the state to make money. But now our government wants to introduce a tax on Sugar-containing drinks to fight obesity.

Well, first of all, I can’t imagine that it will have the slightest impact on obesity. If you buy a bottle of coke for EUR 2 today, then the 20% or 40c increase won’t stop tooo many people from buying that bottle. And if you buy a non-branded 2l bottle of sugar-containing soft drink for maybe 55 or 75 cent then the new price would be 66 cent or 90 cent respectively. Does anybody really think an increase of 11 or 15 cent will change the buying behaviour significantly. Nonsense! Obesity will not be affected in the slightest by these increases.

The only area where it could have an impact is in a pub or restaurant where you already pay a very high EUR 3 or more for a small bottle of soft drink. If the 20% increase would apply there than that is a 60 cent surcharge despite the fact that the tiny 0.2 l bottle has much less of an obesity effect than the 11 cent more expensive 2 litre bottle. Odd!

Another interesting aspect is a comparison to other taxes: If Sugar Drink tax is raised to fight obesity, then Motor tax and fuel tax should be used to improve the roads or even better to improve public transport, but it isn’t directly tied to either. It also should maybe help to reduce accidents, especially fatal ones. But that is not the case. Alcohol tax (duties) should be used to reduce alcoholism, but that is not the case. Instead it is just pocketed by the state.

Actually if a Sugar Drink Tax will be introduced to fight obesity, a NEW (and additional) Alcohol Drink Tax should be also introduced to fight alcohol related illnesses. Because 88 deaths per month in Ireland are DIRECTLY attributable to alcohol and over 14,000 people were admitted to the liver unit in St Vincent’s Hospital for the treatment of alcohol dependence in 2011 and every day, 1,500 beds in our hospitals are occupied by people with alcohol-related problems. In 2012 the whopping amount of EUR 1.5 billion was needed for alcohol related hospital discharges. (Statistics are from alcoholireland.ie/facts/alcohol-related-harm-facts-and-statistics/)

Why am I so much against a Sugar Drink Tax? Because most of us are well able to either limit our sugar intake or make up for it through exercise. But the government doesn’t suggest that people who are not obese do not pay the tax, instead they plan to raise the tax indiscriminately. Even if you are stick thin, you will have to pay the 20% more. That just doesn’t make sense.

Economy, Education, Health System, Odd, Society, Taxes, , ,

Apple, Ireland and the Taxes

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Apple, Ireland and the Taxes

A school teacher from Mayo and his pack of friends are in trouble for the last few days. Everybody is giving them grief over something that started 10 years ago, even before they had anything to say and were only dreaming of getting the big job.

The bigger boys wrapped our school teacher over the knuckles for something that he didn’t do and maybe didn’t even understand when he found out. But since he is in the driving seat at the moment, it is only fair that he has to take responsibility. And I tell you, he and his mates did screw up! But they screwed up intentionally and would do it again in a heart beat. They took money from these big boys and these big boys are not happy about that at all.

But on the other side, the people our schoolteacher wanted to help with the money (at least that’s what he – probably genuinely thought – are also not happy. And it is not just one gang, but two gangs that are complaining. So the Mayo man gets it from all sides.

We could nearly feel sorry for him….but then he has form on screwing up, he does that regularly probably because he just doesn’t know better, he is just a school teacher, you know and hadn’t learned any better. We all wish we had someone who knew what he or she was doing, but the whole country has NOBODY that knows any better, A little bleak, I know, so we just let him meddle on. Complain regularly, but nothing will ever change.

Our school teacher in this story is, of course, Enda Kenny and the story is about what would be called tax fraud if you and I did it. He and his cabinet weren’t even close to being in government in 2003 (or 2007) when the is special arrangement started. So I have some sympathy with them. The special tax treatment was just another mess that they inherited form the previous Fianna Fail government. BUT they didn’t even try to fix it.

What was happening? Apple (and others do that too!) sold products in other EU countries, but officially all products were sold from Ireland and not from the Apple companies in these other EU countries. So all the money went back to Ireland, even if that shouldn’t have been the case. The other EU countries are (I have to say: understandably!) not happy about that because they lost taxes. But they can’t do much against it, because it is not illegal. They are already annoyed about Ireland just charging this super low 12.5% corporate tax, but that is also not illegal. So they were trying to find something that WAS illegal to shake up the whole cosy arrangement that Ireland has with some companies.

They found out that Ireland is not really charging any taxes at all from Apple because Apple cleverly transferred the income from the other countries from one company in Ireland to another and that other company had got a sweet deal from the Irish government. Still nothing illegal, but dodgy nevertheless AND many would say STUPID!

Apple has a lot of money and to let them run their business virtually tax free in Ireland doesn’t make sense. Sure there are 5000 jobs that they have created, but if they had to pay a few % of tax instead of well below 1%, the deal would still be soooo good, that these 5000 jobs wouldn’t be in big danger.

So the Irish government should certainly have charged them some taxes!

When the other countries found out that Ireland was doing dodgy stuff, they said that this is like paying Apple money for being in Ireland. It is and it isn’t. Either way it is a form of tax fraud. When the guy who imported garlic from China declared it as Apples (which have a significantly lower tax rate than garlic – for NO apparent reason!) he got a prison sentence of 6 (!!) years a few years ago. The Irish government was not doing much else: Re-labelling you could call it! But they are the government, not a garlic importer so they get away with it.

But let’s face it, a little school teacher from Mayo and his gang wouldn’t dare a super big company to pay more, right? It’s an inbuilt inferiority complex that the Irish government has (don’t get me started on offshore oil and how they just give it as a give to the oil companies).

When the EU said that Apple will have to pay EUR 13 billion plus interest, Apple was understandably not too happy about that (despite the fact that they have around $231 billion in cash), the Irish government wasn’t happy either (they don’t like being wrapped over the knuckles and there is definitely a danger that other foreign companies in Ireland also could have to pay a lot of money. I wonder how Microsoft feels about all that!

So the Irish government HAS to challenge the EU decision because of that. They also have to be seen to defend Apple to show other companies that they stand up for the companies that come to Ireland.

But then there is the other side. Because of that inferiority complex, a few years ago the Irish government screwed up when it came to the bank debt and took on responsibility for debt that they shouldn’t have. So these 13bn would help nicely getting rid of some of that debt. Which means now that a lot of people in Ireland say screw Apple, screw the EU and let’s take that money. Maybe we use some of it to pay our debt back, but, hey let’s buy something nice from our windfall. (and that is another opinion).

A right mess? Definitely!! And it looks like a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. Don’t you love politics and even more so, don’t you love our competent politicians? ;-)

Economy, Justice, Odd, Politics, Taxes, , ,

BREXIT and Who are these neighbours of ours?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
BREXIT and Who are these neighbours of ours?

It is less than a week until the British voters will decide if they will stay in the EU or if they will leave and while we in Ireland have no influence over the vote, it is still interesting to look at the what Britain was before the EU discussion began and what it is now.

I love the multicultural society in Ireland and if you compare it to an Ireland from the 80s, the society has changed SIGNIFICANTLY. Not for everyone, I know and you don’t have to change anyway if you don’t want to, but for the people that like variety, they can find events from all different countries and cultural backgrounds in Dublin.

But whenever I was in the UK in the past, I was always puzzled that the UK was soooo much more multicultural and that all seems to be working quite well in the society. There are Indians&Pakistani, Africans, Asians and Caucasians and a lot more in close proximity and nobody seemed to mind in the slightest.

The favourite national dish seems to be Indian, Italians are in charge of the previous national dish: Fish & Chips and they brought Coffee and Ice Cream, Jamaicans provide the music and had a sizeable influence on youth culture in the 60s and 70s were hugely important, Black people seemed better integrated than in most other countries. All in all, it just seemed as if Britain endorsed their colonial past by accepting all different cultures in and giving them the same opportunities. I know that Irish people had to deal with a lot of subliminal or even open racism at some point, but it seemed to me that this had improved a lot as well.

Please note: No formal research went into this, it was just an impression!!

But then the Brexit discussion happened! And the “new” Britain seems to be divisive, intolerant, selfish, excluding, “we are better than they”, confrontational , bullying and Anti-European or even Anti-International. What happened??

Imagine you had a nice, friendly and tolerant neighbour who over night became an intolerant, antisocial bully. You would probably not WANT to have anything to do with the bully anymore, right? So, if the majority of British people decides for leaving the EU, I think we should be glad that they are gone and we should treat them like you would treat the anti-social bully neighbour.

By the way: I don’t think the EU is perfect and we should be grateful for all it does, BUT I do think that Ireland and many other countries have and still do benefit hugely from the EU. I also am a strong believer in co-operation and “strength in numbers” instead of doing it on your own and I think that improving the EU from the inside is the right approach. So, Brexit supporters, I don’t understand you at all!

 

Economy, Elsewhere, , ,

Web Summit vs Irish Government

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Web Summit vs Irish Government

When the Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave’s yearly Internet conference, declared that they will move to Lisbon from 2016 after four successful years in Dublin, the surprise and even shock in Dublin was sizeable. Immediately there were speculations about Lisbon “buying” the event with subsidies or even direct payments to Cosgrave’s company, but after a few days it seemed to die down and there was not that much talk about it anymore.

But maybe there was still a lot of rumbling going on behind the scenes OR it is an intentional marketing “trick” to bring the focus back onto the Web Summit: Suddenly – and to most people unexpectedly – Paddy Cosgrave released the e-mail correspondence between him and a clearly very little interested Nick Reddy, who is the Taoiseach’s Private Secretary, in the run up to the announcement about the move to Lisbon.

I am of the opinion that the Web Summit far outgrew Dublin and that the vast amount of 30,000 participants this November, will bring Dublin to its breakpoint. Neither the RDS, not the traffic and public transport infrastructure in the area is suitable for such a massive event. And with the goals of growing the conference to even 50-60,000 delegates, it was absolutely unavoidable that event would have to move. Dublin is too small for it and Ballsbridge is not the place where you can implement the traffic management plans that the Web Summit management expected.

But it seems that despite this, Paddy Cosgrave didn’t want to move and desperately tried to get the current Irish Government to listen to him and to help him. He repeatedly stresses that he is not looking for money and that instead he is looking for help with Traffic Management, Public Transport, the over pricing by hotels and the WiFi in the RDS. He received no support. Maybe that was because there IS no solution to the problem, but there was not even the attempt to help or to fight to keep the Web Summit. The Taoiseach’s Private Secretary couldn’t have been any less interested.

The most interesting document in this exchange of e-mails however is a mail from 03 September. I strongly recommend that you read it on Page 9. It shows how totally incompetent the Irish Government behaved in comparison to governments from other countries in making good use of this huge event. The ignorance and incompetence is truly shocking!

Sure, we all know that Enda Kenny and his accomplices are not in the premier league when it comes to statesmanship or management skills, but the picture described in this mail from 03 September makes you wonder if they even make it into the lowest league.

Economy, Politics, , , , ,
 
Malcare WordPress Security