Finance « Thurles Information

Thurles Credit Union January 2013 Cash Draw Winner

Identifying (L-R,): Mr Ephrem Crowe with his wife Lesley both pictured, here above, being presented with a cheque by Mr Donal Scannell (CEO TCU.)

Ephrem was the winner of the January 2013 Thurles Credit Union (TCU) Cash Draw. Ephram & his wife are presently residing in the UK, hence the delay in bringing you news regarding this presentation.

Our congratulations to you, on your good fortune and enjoy your stay in Thurles.

Vintage Rally Fundraiser Tomorrow In Dualla Tipperary

Pictured above are members of the combined Vintage Clubs of Tipperary

Bart Howard reports.

The combined Vintage Clubs of Tipperary are all set to come together in Dualla, Co Tipperary on Sunday 24th next (Tomorrow) in a massive Vintage Rally to raise much needed funds for a Paediatric Resuscitator for the Paediatric Unit in Clonmel General Hospital. The event takes place sharp at 12.00 noon, regardless of weather conditions.

Paediatric emergencies in primary healthcare centres are serious events that occur more commonly than envisaged. This initiative therefore is very necessary to procure this essential piece of equipment and comes with the full backing & support of all nursing staff working at the Hospital.
A ‘Resuscitator,’ is essential in a modern Paediatric Unit and can play a major role in the Recovery Unit for young patients.

Clonmel Paediatric Unit

The Paediatric Unit in Clonmel currently has 17 beds and cares for children, from newborn infants up to the age of 16 years, all who suffer with a wide variety of illnesses. On the ward there is a Paediatric Emergency Room, in which all the children who attend South Tipperary General Hospital are dealt with, except trauma cases, who attend in the main Hospital Emergency Department.
This Unit also runs a ‘Day Ward,’ from 9.00am to 2.00pm, 5 days each week. The Unit provides shared care with Crumlin Children’s Hospital and Temple St. Children’s Hospital. This saves Oncology and Cardiac patients from having to travel long distances to Dublin for treatment which can be provided locally, thus saving an added financial burden and unnecessary travelling disruption in daily family life.

It is expected that this latter will be a truly major event, with lots to do and see and all are invited to come along and share, so please do remember the date & put your support fully behind this event.

Despite the burden of taxation, publicly imposed at this time on the citizens of this island of our, latter supposedly to provide us with this same much needed health equipment, it is now being provided privately by these same taxpayers. Regrettably VAT at the rate of 23% will be charged on this Paediatric Resuscitator, so if any of our powerful caring public representatives could now instruct Revenue to forego this VAT charge, same would be very much appreciated.

Well done to the combined Vintage Clubs of Tipperary and every success in this venture.

Photo courtesy G.Willoughby.

Property Tax – No Protests Reported In Tipperary

Revenue Commissioners

While County Tipperary home owners appear to have ‘accepted their fate,’ the counties of Galway, Laois, Dublin, Wexford, Kildare, Louth, Waterford, Cork, Limerick & Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan’s own county Kilkenny will all hold a national day of local protests against the new government levied Property Tax. Protests today in these latter counties will include the picketing of clinics of several Labour members of Dáil Éireann and County Council offices.

In a recent TV interview, the head of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily correctly forecast foul-ups in attempting to collect this new local property tax & same appears to be borne out by today’s Independent newspaper, who report that a 15-year-old girl received a local property tax bill for a house where her parents currently pay the mortgage. Several similar incidents of teenagers & non house owners receiving demands, have also been reported in Tipperary.

These protests on the property tax appear to be fuelled, in particular, by the reduction of the number of houses eligible to claim exemptions, on the basis of being forced to inhabit ghost estates. Figures indicate that of 1,770 unfinished housing developments around the country, residents in only 421 will now not have to pay this new tax. Previously exempt houses have been reduced from 43,000 down to 5,000.

The Glenatore estate in Athlone, Co Westmeath, is nationally one estate previously exempt from the household charge, because of its building-site conditions and evident visual appearance of empty unfinished properties. This estate made headlines last year, when a male infant tragically died after falling into a pool of water, while chasing his dog. Now according to the Department of the Environment, this estate is no longer one of the 421 unfinished estates classified as being in a “seriously problematic condition,” despite the estate still remaining in a state of total disrepair, with the only work carried out being the erection of unsightly hoardings.

In Tipperary North & South, a total of 35 housing developments, sites, and buildings, published last Thursday, are either fully or partially exempt from this new Property Tax. Here in Thurles, sites listed as exempt are; Ashgrove near Clongower, a Croke Street partial development and Hayfield Manor on Bohernamona Road.

Figures to date appear to indicate that of the 1.6 million home owners liable to pay the levy; just over 7,000 have so far only completed tax forms and sent them back to the Revenue Commissioners.

In the words of the Ballerina & Japanese anime character, Princess Tutu, “May those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory.“

Thurles Credit Union Supporting Tipperary Community Efforts

Pictured here at the recent presentation of a contribution by Thurles Credit Union (TCU) to Littleton Development Association, same granted towards the construction of their new Sports Centre currently under construction in Littleton village, near Thurles, Co.Tipperary are:- (L-R.): Sean Ryan (Secretary.), J. J O’ Sullivan (Chairman.), D.J. Darcy (TCU President.), Seamus Hanafin (North Tipp Co Councillor.) and Donal Scannell (CEO TCU.).

New More Accurate Property Tax Website Launched

The website Daft.ie has now launched its own Local Property Tax calculator (Click HERE to estimate property tax payment due.)

All the functions on this property website allows the user to input much more information with regards to their private property than the site recently provided by the Government’s own, dare I say, useless Revenue.ie property valuation guide.

Users can insert their geographical location, the number of bedrooms contained, bathrooms and property description, thus providing a useful tool for home owners wishing to guesstimate a more accurate market value for their property.

Daft.ie state that house owners will get a more accurate estimate by using this website, but warned that it should still only be used as an indicator.

For answers, by Revenue, to ‘Frequently Asked Questions,’ (FAQs) on this soon to be implemented Property Tax, Click HERE.

What most people are blissfully unaware of is the meaning of the word DEFER.

My understanding of this word is that imagine your estimated gross income from all sources does not exceed €15,000 for a single person or €25,000 for a couple during the relevant year (for this year’s Return the relevant year will be 2013), you can choose to defer your full Local Property Tax (LPT) liability. In other words you can opt to pay nothing, based on hardship and inability to pay. However this deferred tax will remains a charge on your property and you will be charged interest on the deferred amounts at a rate of 4% per year.

Let me make it simpler for you, this present government is about to register your property with the equivalent of what is called a “Judgement Mortgage,” latter normally attributed to those who refuse to pay outstanding debt.

Imagine you are an old aged pensioner aged 70 below the stated income for this year and you go to meet your maker aged 75, your son or daughter, whom you may wish to inherit your property, will now be obliged to pay all your outstanding deferred Property Tax, on the sale of this property, at a rate of 4% per year, over the previous 5 years of your deferral, unless the vendors income also is below the same income threshold as the previous owner.

This new property tax now makes us all just mere tenants in our own homes, latter which could be eventually stolen by the Irish State, depending on your personal financial circumstances.

Is it now time to emigrate or perhaps change our present governing body? Come back England all is forgiven.

Regarding the latter, this St Patrick’s weekend might be the perfect opportunity to stage a bloodless coup. Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Jimmy Deenihan, Joan Burton, Minister of State Alan Kelly (North Tipperary) & Richard Bruton will all be in the USA, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore will be in Canada, Leo Varadkar, Michael Ring & Dinny McGinley are touring the British Isles. Michael Noonan is going to France, Pat Rabbitte to Italy, Simon Coveney to the Benelux countries, while Chief Whip Paul Kehoe is going to Germany, and Minister of State John Perry will be heading to Finland and Sweden. Brendan Howlin is going to Singapore, Alan Shatter to Australia and New Zealand, and Minister of State Ciaran Cannon heads for China. Popular Minister Phil Hogan has been asked not to attend official events abroad this St Patrick’s weekend and is therefore expected to return to visit Ireland over this same period.

When the Fine Gael/ Labour led Government took office two years ago, the Ministerial travel for St Patrick’s Day was scaled back to just 8 Ministers and the Taoiseach taking part in March 17th festivities outside the State. This number increased to 16 Ministers and the Taoiseach in 2012. In 2013, 19 Ministers and their Juniors with the Taoiseach will travel overseas to some 21 countries.

My question is, “Who is minding the shop?” Then I suppose it would be different if we were experiencing a recession. Now you understand the meaning of the proverb “The more things change the more they stay the same.” (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1908 – 1990)