What's new
By:
Filters

85% of households yet to pay household charge

Homeowners to be hit with new €300 tax a year


By Niall O'Connor



HOMEOWNERS are to be hit with a property tax of up to €300 next year -- 12 months earlier than expected.


The Government is to fast-track plans to introduce the permanent tax which will apply to every household in the country.


It has emerged today that Environment Minister Phil Hogan is forging ahead with the controversial levy a full year earlier than previously anticipated.


Mr Hogan is set to target an average of €200-€300 from every household in the State -- regardless of what the house is worth. The news comes despite the Government facing a nightmare scenario as just 15pc of households have signed up for the €100 household charge -- 12 days before deadline.


The Environment Minister is set to get tough with those refusing to pay the charge and may hunt down dodgers by using their ESB bills.

Worried

Department officials were this week devising how to significantly increase the numbers paying the charge.


The Government has become increasingly worried over the disastrous take up so far with opponents of the charge already claiming victory. With the March 31 deadline fast approaching, just 250,000 have handed over the €100 sum. A staggering 110,000 households would have to register every single day for the €160m to be collected.


Any late surge would prove to be a technical nightmare for those processing online payments.


It has now emerged that the Department may advise all local authorities to instigate court proceedings against those who refuse to pay.


The Government feels large- scale court cases would generate huge media attention and may prove embarrassing for those dodging the charge.


Those who do sign up will face a late payment fee of €10 after six months, €20 between six and 12 months and €30 if the €100 is not paid by March of next year.

However. councils will also have the power to take prosecutions against homeowners who refuse to pay the charge.


Mr Hogan may now resort to desperate measures -- such as seizing funds through utility and ESB bills -- a move would cause widespread consternation.


In a text message to supporters this weekend, People Before Profit TD Joan Collins said the Government was facing the "biggest boycott in the history of this country".


"It will be a powerful message to Phil Hogan and this Government of 1,000 cuts," she wrote.


However, despite the disastrous payment record surrounding the household charge, plans are already afoot to bring in a full blown property tax by 2013.


The new system will be self-assessed and will be based on the value of an owner's 'site' rather than their home.


This means that the tax will be based on the actual site of one's home, rather than the bricks and mortar.


It is estimated that the average three bed semi-detached home will be hit with an annual charge of €200-€300.


It is not yet clear what exceptions will be made for low income families.


However, it is understood that Government officials are looking at a national waiver system.


Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes today said that the Government is completely entitled to seize details from utility bills like the ESB.

hnews@herald.ie
 
wheelo said:
Love it Gman, but in answer to the first question, they are going to use the utility company's records - Gas/Electric, and they have been told this is okay as they have already passed the bill into law ------> CANT'S, or something that sounds somewhat similar.:willy nilly:
Click to expand...


Hmm! I still have a problem with that wheelo?


Example:

If I own a property and rent it to students? The property is in my name but the electricity bill will be in the name of one or more of the occupants, no? Surely you wouldn't let your doweling to others and trust that they would pay the electricity bill if it were left in your name?
 
flutered said:
i am posting an interesting fact, ministers and tds are exempt from this tax.
Click to expand...

I just heard this question being put to a local TD on local radio and he confirmed that existing TD's and Ministers are indeed exempt from this charge under the current legislation :dunno:
 
Household Charge will not be abolished: Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore

Wednesday, 28 March 2012








Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said the Household Charge has to be paid and will not be abolished by the Government.


0005b649-314.jpg
Saturday is the deadline for the Household Charge payment


0005b905-174.jpg

No late surge in Household Charge payments


Gilmore said he understood that no-one liked paying extra taxes, but the charge is an interim measure that had to be introduced before a property tax can be fully implemented.


Around 30% of people had paid the Household Charge by this evening.


The Department of the Environment has asked local authorities to open as many offices as possible on Saturday, which is the deadline for payment.


A spokesperson said this meant that all principal offices in each county would be open at the very least.


Those who do not pay before next Sunday will face penalties and fines.


Speaking in China, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that people have plenty of time left to pay the charge and that it is the law of the land.


However, Socialist TD Joe Higgins said the Government is facing a mass revolt over the charge and will not be able to impose it.


He said people understood that the charge was simply a precursor to a total new tier of taxation that would quickly go to €1,000 per household and beyond, which they cannot bear.


Elsewhere, the Mandate trade union has announced its support for the Sinn Féin Household Charge Repeal Bill, which was launched today.


The union said the charge disproportionately affects those on lower incomes, but added that it would support the Government in introducing a fair and progressive property tax.


Fianna Fáil are advising people to pay the charge but say the deadline should be pushed back.


Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has repeated that there will be no extension to the 31 March deadline.


A meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party this evening was dominated by discussion of the charge.


Minister Hogan made a presentation and fielded questions from over 20 TDs and Senators.


Sources said the tone of the meeting was broadly supportive of the minister.


However, there was some criticism of Labour ministers, including Joan Burton and Brendan Howlin, who had voiced misgivings about his handling of the issue.



Boycott the Home Tax

Protest at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis, assemble 1pm at Parnell Square. As the March 31 deadline approaches it is clear that huge numbers are refusing to pay.
Mass non-payment of the household tax will not just be a massive blow to an unjust tax it will also be a massive blow to the Government’s entire austerity drive.
 
Flutered and Gman, there is something that I hadnt heard.
Are we all nucking futs or what, they pass a new law and exempt them****ingselves? and they are trying to tell us that it is fair??what a wower of shankers!!
~It is officially time to stand up and be counted, a mass demonstration is needed, so if it is organised, get your trainerfs on boys and girls.
 
exactly if the goverment wont pay why should we,let them sell there bloody mercs and get electric cars,i think i need the local dyna rod to park outside their own house and see the sh1te themselves:woohoo:
 
You have to laugh at the "interim measure" part, income tax was suppose to be an interim thing also and here we are in north America almost a 100 years later and we are still paying it, governments are addicted to taxes and pissing away our money like it's their own.

Stick to your guns over there and march en masse and tell them all to go to fornicate themselves ;)
There are times for civil disobedience and this is definitely one of those times.
 
5,000 gather for Household Charge protest

5,000 gather for Household Charge protest

Around 5,000 people who are opposed to the €100 Household Charge have gathered for a protest demonstration near the Convention Centre in central Dublin where Fine Gael is holding its Ard Fheis.

0005b736-314.jpg


Two protesters attempted to push their way through a security cordon but were pushed back by gardai.
Leaders of the opposition campaign, including a number of TDs, will address the rally. People inside the Convention Centre have been told to move away from windows to avoid "antagonising the crowds".
A near riot broke out during the protests when a Fine Gael delegate who resembled Phil Hogan tried to pass through the crowd.
The man was engulfed by angry protesters and jostled before gardai came to his rescue.
As they attempted to escort him from the area they were surrounded by screaming protesters, some of whom shouted “shame on you Hogan.”
The man was visibly shaken as he was put into a Garda squad car and driven away at speed.
Earlier a number of Fine Gael delegates who ventured through the crowd were also subject to verbal abuse.
Meanwhile, the Local Government Management Agency has said it has processed 650,000 payments for the Household Charge.
Included in this figure were nearly 12,000 properties for which waivers had been granted and 89,000 for which postal payments had been received.
1.6 million households are liable for the €100 charge. The Government has said it will not be extending the deadline.
In his opening address to the Fine Gael Ard Fheis last night, Enda Kenny appealed to people to pay the charge.
Also speaking last night, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said that he thought Sinn Fein and the promised protesters should “get a life”.
In response, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams accused the Government of being “in denial” about public opinion.
"Justice Minister Alan Shatter is telling us to get a life. He is obviously in denial about the kind of life this Government has imposed on the citizens struggling with austerity.
"Fine Gael and Labour are in denial about the social consequences of their Government's policies.”
Mr Adams added: "The unemployed, the families whose loved ones have emigrated, the households in mortgage distress, those on hospitals trolleys and low and middle income households struggling to pay increasing bills and make ends meet will not be celebrating the Fine Gael Ard Fheis."
Socialist Party Councillor Ruth Coppinger said Mr Shatter’s remarks were “typical of the arrogance displayed by this Government”.
The Household Charge may be paid at local authority offices today, or by postal application which will be accepted for processing into the early days of next week.
People may pay online until midnight tonight, but after midnight paying online will automatically involve a 10% surcharge along with 1% interest.
 
So after all this holding out half of Ireland stab themselves in the back and the rest of us that held off paying the charge and now the charge is here to stay, their saying now services will eventually be cut off (water I presume) and after October an additional 20% will be lumped onto the charge if it hasn't been paid. Thanks fellow countrymen for standing up for yourselves.

HTC Desire S~Tapatalk
 
I heard on the radio today there was a serious underestimate of how many houses were eligible for this tax,it looks like there is according to the body who made the statement(cant remember who) that there is at least 1 million 600,000 not after paying that are eligible to pay,sounds like the "government" are making up figures to suit themselves,would'nt be the first time,hopefully someone will pick up on it and find the true figures,as for me i wont pay and if forced to do so as Eamon Gilmore said it is only €2 a week,i will give them €2 a week and they can spend €5 processing it
 
The reason the figures shifted from 1.8M to 1.6M and eventually down to 1.5M was to allow the Government to tell Europe that more than half of the people eligible paid and therefore announcing that the majority of people were for the TAX. 700,000+ is not over 50% of 1.8M? The Government were simply shifting the figures to suit there cause. :no no:

What's it going to cost to follow the non payers?
 
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has said the Government will pursue all those who have not yet paid the Household Charge.



0005c6f8-314.jpg

Di*k head Phil Hogan vows to pursue people who do not pay household charge




60 anti-household charge protestors greeted Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan at an event in Waterford City tonight.


A number of Councillors attending the event applauded the Minister.


Earlier, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said that the Government will pursue all those who have not yet paid the Household Charge.


Speaking in Kilkenny this afternoon, the minister said letters will be sent to householders from local authorities reminding them of the penalties and interest relating to non-payment.


Full details of how the system will work will be announced early next week.


The Cabinet will discuss the issue on Tuesday.


More than 900,000 people have registered for the Household Charge, with €90m collected to date.


Mr Hogan said many people had expected it to be dropped or changed before the deadline date of a few weeks ago and they now realise what he had said all along, that it would not be.


The minister said he's very satisfied with the numbers that have paid in the past week in particular.


The estimate for the number of households who are due to pay the charge is 1.6m.


The 900,392 who have registered includes 14,655 people who have registered for waivers.


Opposition parties have accused Mr Hogan of bullying and intimidating people in relation to the household charge.


Joan Collins of the United Left Alliance said the minister was engaging in"bullyboy tactics".


She said any attempts to force people to pay would be met with a campaign of resistance.


Dessie Ellis of Sinn Féin said he was not surprised Minister Hogan was "sticking to his line" but said he should listen to the large numbers of people who had already refused to pay.


He said this resistance would continue despite any "letters of blackmail" that local authorities might send out.


Elsewhere, Fianna Fáil's spokesman on the environment Niall Collins,TD, has called on the Government to broaden the exemptions to the household charge, introduce easy-to-pay methods and extend the payment deadline.


He said there was still only a 50% compliance rate with the charge.
 
I have in the last few days looked up the site, and found out that I have a waiver, but I WILL NOT be registering my address, feck you boys, introduce a fair tax or don't bother.
If someone who is unemployed has to pay the tax, yet I, who is working(as is my wife) doesn't, what kind of fairness is this????? Also, they say the FAIR tax will be based on the cost of the land that your house is built on, how is this fair, my house almost doubled in price as soon as the Luas went near it, that doesn't mean that I have any more means to pay the doubled FAIR rate.
Sorry Government, I will not be panicking, and I definitely won't be paying.

the good thing about this "tax" is that it affects the whole country at once, the bin charges were brought in county by county, so all the FF government had to deal with was a small number of protesters, this on e calls for us ALL to get out on the streets and make some noise.

PLEASE, if anyone can point me to any Government site that tells me why/if a government minister is exempt from paying (it has been claimed else where, but i cant find it) please post here,
Thanks,
Wheelo
 
Don't think too feckin hard mate lol I just want this info, to piss off others, and to prove how unfair it is. we had a discussion in work the other day and a member of another union(nbru) in fact a shop steward(what a leader of men) started going on about how he was paying the charge so he wouldn't leave the bill for his kids, what a wimp for me, either you are a socialist, (trades unions representative) or you are not. make up your mind boys and girls, or are you waiting for the "grey brigade" to show you the way forward???
they can muster 100,000 plus for their marches, why not the young people??? Also this affect the "new Irish" community,, why not turn out in force to join in the protests???

As the great poet once said Get up, Stand up, don't give up your rights" The late great Bob Nesta Marley
 
wheelo there was a link to that over on boards, phil the flute(r) is not paying the household charge on his penthouse appartment on a golfing resort in marbella, the same flute(r) claimed last january thatbecause of his lifestyle he could not afford to take a 10% cut in his salary, what the fcuk, me thinks there is no difference between this lot and the last
 
That story was an April fools joke started in one paper, yet copied by another, then another without checking their facts.
Question still remains, anyone got any info about the ministerial waiver??
 
More on it here wheelo

Code: 
http://www.politics.ie/news/government-moves-quell-suggestions-ministers-personally-exempt-household-charge-186.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top