Abolition would be a very retrograde step
Sir, – Ever since Fianna Fáil abolished domestic rates in 1977, the various political parties realised this was a serious error that led to gross underfunding of local authorities and tried unsuccessfully to bring in additional revenue in various guises, including domestic refuse charges, water charges, household charges, etc, none with any great success.
The decision to introduce a residential property tax subsequent to the financial crash was an attempt to broaden the tax base and address the issue of local authority financing. This was to be done by the valuation of the property in question. The chance was there to address the issue by allowing the local authorities assess the valuation of property and also to collect it, but then-minister for the environment Phil Hogan fumbled the issue and allowed property owners to self-assess, with no input as to the accuracy of these assessments.
In addition, due to a well-organised campaign by its opponents, he then passed the task of collecting this money to the Revenue Commissioners who accepted the valuations and successfully collected the tax.Is remote working bad for productivity?This would be a very retrograde step as any future attempt to reintroduce that tax would face the uphill task and relitigate the tired old arguments as to why it was supposedly unfair.
I cannot think of another country in Europe that has supposed left and centre-left political parties that oppose a tax on property. – Yours, etc,The tears came from an unexpected quarter.
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