CAB hits Ray Burke for €2Million Tax Bill

Sleipnir

serves the crooked baxterd right.
I hope he gets thrown in prison too.

The Former Minister for Foreign Affairs Ray Burke has been served with a tax bill of €2 million by the Criminal Assets Bureau. The bill represents undeclared and untaxed income to the revenue commissioners. It has emerged that Mr. Burke was accused of receiving corrupt payments by the Flood Tribunal last year. Last week, he was served with the order by CAB officers.

star gazer

Well as we all know the Taoiseach was up every tree in north county Dublin, a pity he didn't notice that pot of gold. At least with redmond last week this tax bill this week and the probablility that Burke will also face huge legal fees the cost of wrong-doing will be seen to be high.

SCULLY

For serious tax evasion is a hugh tax bill enough or should there also be a custodial sentence? I think a prison term would be a good punishment as well (though I'm not quite sure of the law in this area)

My goodness is 2m not enough? He just lives a few doors down from me and he's actually quite a nice chap..
Jail? No way...If you're going to start throwing tax-evaders into jail then you'd be fuked for space pretty quickly. Remember that list that was released earlier this year? Thousands of people right there...

Sleipnir

Originally posted by utility_
My goodness is 2m not enough? He just lives a few doors down from me and he's actually quite a nice chap..
Jail? No way...If you're going to start throwing tax-evaders into jail then you'd be fuked for space pretty quickly. Remember that list that was released earlier this year? Thousands of people right there...

It wasn't just his off-shore accounts which is what that list is about, it was
"The bill represents undeclared and untaxed income to the revenue commissioners"

Undeclared income as in brown paper-bag income.

me and he's actually quite a nice chap..

Yeah and that's alright then. REALLY nice guy so I don't mind that he's a crook who has ripped off all the taxpayers on this island.
That's exactly how he pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. By pretending to be Mr. Nice Guy but actually being a thieving gypsie.

Having said all that, I do believe you're trolling.

SCULLY

Originally posted by utility_
My goodness is 2m not enough? He just lives a few doors down from me and he's actually quite a nice chap..
Jail? No way...If you're going to start throwing tax-evaders into jail then you'd be fuked for space pretty quickly. Remember that list that was released earlier this year? Thousands of people right there...

Well if he's a nice chap that's ok then - sorry about that...


As for the tax evaders list - If we had far stricter punishments do you not think that people might think twice before ripping the rest of us off??

/me raises hands into the air

Don't shoot just yet guys...



I agree that he did commit a crime, but I'd much rather see people like him walking free as opposed to people like that chap from Limerick...

mike65

I understand Hilter was kind to his dog....(er that should read Hitler...

Burke should be hit as hard as is possible within the law.

Mike.

oscarBravo

Originally posted by mike65
I understand Hilter was kind to his dog...

Gowdin's law!!

Victor

Originally posted by utility_
My goodness is 2m not enough? He just lives a few doors down from me and he's actually quite a nice chap..

Hang on. He gets a house "free" from a developer which he then sells to another developer for €3.5m tax free ..... and thats only the most obvious bit. There were lots of other shenanigans that we know of and presumably more that we don't.

star gazer

The loveable rogue bit is wearing kinda thin, can anyone seriously believe that our development has been helped by the brown paper bags and the nod and wink politics being shown up at the tribunals? If it wasn't for Mary Harney's big booboo Charlie haughey night very well have gone to jail, can you argue with that. So what if he did a lot for the arts, people who made a fortune by abusing the power given to them by the people should be brought to justice. Time for a better system too, planning still has the same basic structures, councillors can re zone land and create a huge benefit to the land owner.

therecklessone

Originally posted by utility_


I agree that he did commit a crime, but I'd much rather see people like him walking free as opposed to people like that chap from Limerick...

We could do both, if McDowell wasn't so intent on closing prisons to break the Prison Officers in their current stand-off.

mike65

Originally posted by star gazer
The loveable rogue bit is wearing kinda thin.

*cough* Ray Burke - Loveable?!

Mike.

SCULLY

Originally posted by therecklessone
We could do both, if McDowell wasn't so intent on closing prisons to break the Prison Officers in their current stand-off.

I agree - (build more prison's if necessary)

Busy Hands

Build more prisons you say, just like that, and how do you propose paying for them? The coffers are not exactly flowing at the moment, and by the time the Prison Officers & their Public Sector cronies are paid their (ahem!) well deserved Benchmarking awards we'll be back to heavy international borrowing again.

wasabi

i agree, sending people to prison for financial shenanigans is not a good idea. for one thing, it's super expensive to maintain people in jail. far better to hit them with punitive fines and get some money off them to make up for their crimes.

also if you put a load of tax evaders/crooked politicians inside together they'll only start learning from each other

star gazer

originally posted by wasabi
i agree, sending people to prison for financial shenanigans is not a good idea. for one thing, it's super expensive to maintain people in jail. far better to hit them with punitive fines and get some money off them to make up for their crimes.

Why not do both, by rights anyway, the proceeds of corruption should be seized, penalties for tax evasion and interest added so they pay for their jail time. There isn't much point in taking half a fortune off one of the beneficiaries of corruption because they will have plenty stashed aside anyway if they were at the heart of the problem so jail time is the option that will make it less enticing to act corruptly when you know the penalty will be tough when caught.

Victor

Originally posted by SCULLY
I agree - (build more prison's if necessary)

I think the idea is to rationalise the system - i.e. remove the very small prisons.