Reducing VAT in Ireland?

kleefarr

old boy wrote: »

joe public payes the goverments wages, joe public bailed out the banks, insurance, and builders, and developers, so why the feck should he have to subsidise the rip off merchants,

Hear hear.

ninty9er

old boy wrote: »

joe public payes the goverments wages, joe public bailed out the banks, insurance, and builders, and developers, so why the feck should he have to subsidise the rip off merchants,

How much money exactly have you PERSOANLLY, as Joe Public, given each bank so?? Because I know I've given feck all. I pay some civil servants wages, but what I pay in tax per year wouldn't cover a month for a cleaner.

Shops ARE ripping us off, why? Because we let them. I no longer buy anything that can be bought in £Stg online from the same store as the exchange rate was ridiculous even when £Stg was strong.

A VAT rate drop isn't going to change that. The government can't throw €3bn down the toilet to drop VAT to 16% if there is no justifiable evidence that

A) people will spend an extra €19billion in 2009 as a result just to balance the €3bn, never mind bringing in more.

that the shops will pass the cut on.

A and B are linked.

kleefarr wrote: »

Hear hear.

:rolleyes:

kleefarr

ninty9er wrote: »

How much money exactly have you PERSOANLLY, as Joe Public, given each bank so??

<snip>

:rolleyes:

Well I envy you as you obviously have free banking as well as interest free loans and overdrafts. And if you don't use a bank and have no loans or overdrafts I envy you even more.

ninty9er

kleefarr wrote: »

Well I envy you as you obviously have free banking as well as interest free loans and overdrafts. And if you don't use a bank and have no loans or overdrafts I envy you even more.

Yes I have free banking, but will continue to do so as there are easy ways to avoid paying bank fees, which they even advertise! Where can I get an interest free loan, because if I could get one of them I'd take it and tell the credit union where to shove their car loan!

I did have an overdraft, but due to a gripe with the particular bank (not my usual bank), I borrowed the money elsewhere, repaid it and closed the account.

If my parents got to their mid-40s before needing a credit card, I don't see why I should need one really.

spadder

Hate to be a told-you-so Brian:


http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/eyaucwidmhgb/

What is it with these gobsh1tes?
Anyone who has been shopping in the north in the last year could have told you this.

ejmaztec

spadder wrote: »

Hate to be a told-you-so Brian:


http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/eyaucwidmhgb/

What is it with these gobsh1tes?
Anyone who has been shopping in the north in the last year could have told you this.

I see that the Indo mentions, in relation to this, that 49% of the drink consumed down here was sourced in The North. The "FF floundering about" continues.

I think that the €700m is probably the tip of the iceberg when the big picture is looked at. I for one haven't bought anything up there, but I have bought stuff on the web from England and Scotland. I wonder what the statistics for web purchases are, presuming they're available?

thebman

We need to reduce vat and increase direct taxation on income tax.

Vat is fine in boom times because people don't shop around or cut expenditure and the more you buy, the more you pay.

When things go downhill however, you can't depend on this type of tax.

the explorer

in the mini budget he should increase both rates of income tax by 2% and increase petrol and diesel by 2c a litre each. dont bother hiking tax on cigarettes because people will just smuggle more in.

turgon

They made a mistake, and they admit that, but heaven forbid they will say sorry, or worse still, admit that their fall in popularity is justified.

ejmaztec

turgon wrote: »

They made a mistake, and they admit that, but heaven forbid they will say sorry, or worse still, admit that their fall in popularity is justified.

I'm still trying to figure out who they are listening to for advice. They do have something in common with the Northern dissidents, in that they don't give a hoot about public opinion.

Soldie

They should at least half the current rate of VAT if they want to stimulate the economy.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Dr Galen

wouldn't that be an awful gamble though as there would be no guarantee that public spending would increase accordingly, what with consumer sentiment being in the doldrums right now.

Soldie

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yet the EU seems baffled as to any anti-EU sentiment. What business is it of theirs what our rate of VAT is?

Mystik Monkey wrote:

wouldn't that be an awful gamble though as there would be no guarantee that public spending would increase accordingly, what with consumer sentiment being in the doldrums right now.

People might find it more affordable to drown their sorrows if our 21.5% VAT wasn't contributing to certain Dublin pubs charging €5.80 for a pint of lager, at least.

oscarBravo

Soldie wrote: »

Yet the EU seems baffled as to any anti-EU sentiment. What business is it of theirs what our rate of VAT is?

Are you seriously telling me that anti-EU sentiment is based on the Union's competence over indirect taxation?

In all the Lisbon debates, I don't remember that one coming up.

Soldie

oscarBravo wrote: »

Are you seriously telling me that anti-EU sentiment is based on the Union's competence over indirect taxation?

In all the Lisbon debates, I don't remember that one coming up.

No, I'm not - people are too busy worrying about the USE army and the legalisation of abortion.

In all seriousness though; I think concerns over the EU's policy of enforcing abritrary VAT limitations are perfectly legitimate - not to mention the ECB's interest-rate policies.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

thebman

Mystik Monkey wrote: »

wouldn't that be an awful gamble though as there would be no guarantee that public spending would increase accordingly, what with consumer sentiment being in the doldrums right now.

No we are losing so much to NI purchases at the moment, it would not make it worth it for a lot of people doing long distance journeys.

When everything drops in price by that much, people would notice and couldn't help but buy that great value item now instead of waiting as VAT rates will go back up when we recover from the recession.

I think it should be dropped as much as possible and I'd abolish the minimum wage and reduce social welfare considerably. Social Welfare will define minimum wage anyway as your not going to work if you'll earn more by not working.

This would reduce the price of everything by a massive margin as retailers could afford to pay people at the counter less and it would reduce the cost of doing business here considerably and then we might actually become competitive against the UK and attract people to shop down here.

givyjoe81

thebman wrote: »

No we are losing so much to NI purchases at the moment, it would not make it worth it for a lot of people doing long distance journeys.

When everything drops in price by that much, people would notice and couldn't help but buy that great value item now instead of waiting as VAT rates will go back up when we recover from the recession.

I think it should be dropped as much as possible and I'd abolish the minimum wage and reduce social welfare considerably. Social Welfare will define minimum wage anyway as your not going to work if you'll earn more by not working.

This would reduce the price of everything by a massive margin as retailers could afford to pay people at the counter less and it would reduce the cost of doing business here considerably and then we might actually become competitive against the UK and attract people to shop down here.

Not just disagreeing with you for the sake of it! But decreasing the minimum wage would be disasterous for the people working on the min wage, I know of one former employer who has always only ever paid the min wage, even in the good times and wouldnt hesitate to lowering to whatever he thinks he can get away with it, my point being that unscrupulous employers will exploit their staff who simply cant afford to work for less or much less anyway than the min wage. Working for less would only be possible if prices across the board seriously dropped. Students such as myself dont have the option of choosing between social welfare or min wage jobs. Min wage is around 8.65 per hour, thats still very very low, even if it looks high in comparison to other countries. Everything else is so expensive still!!

thebman

givyjoe81 wrote: »

Not just disagreeing with you for the sake of it! But decreasing the minimum wage would be disasterous for the people working on the min wage, I know of one former employer who has always only ever paid the min wage, even in the good times and wouldnt hesitate to lowering to whatever he thinks he can get away with it, my point being that unscrupulous employers will exploit their staff who simply cant afford to work for less or much less anyway than the min wage. Working for less would only be possible if prices across the board seriously dropped. Students such as myself dont have the option of choosing between social welfare or min wage jobs. Min wage is around 8.65 per hour, thats still very very low, even if it looks high in comparison to other countries. Everything else is so expensive still!!

The minimum wage is not low in this country by any stretch.

Everything else is so expensive because minimum wage is at a ridiculously high level. Costs for shops like Tesco etc... are ridiculous in this country precisely because of high minimum wage. They have to pay this to everyone and the companies they buy services have to do the same and then add their profit margin on top of this so it spirals costs upward.

Most people in this country are earning probably not much above minimum wage and the cost of goods and essentials in an economy is all based around what the average person can afford. This determines the worth of goods. If you reduce minimum wage and wages are reduced, prices will come down.

givyjoe81

thebman wrote: »

The minimum wage is not low in this country by any stretch.

Everything else is so expensive because minimum wage is at a ridiculously high level. Costs for shops like Tesco etc... are ridiculous in this country precisely because of high minimum wage. They have to pay this to everyone and the companies they buy services have to do the same and then add their profit margin on top of this so it spirals costs upward.

Most people in this country are earning probably not much above minimum wage and the cost of goods and essentials in an economy is all based around what the average person can afford. This determines the worth of goods. If you reduce minimum wage and wages are reduced, prices will come down.

You have got be joking, thats one of the most ill informed statements iv read in a long time, you must be reading rhetoric from IBEC etc. Not low?! Its just over 8 euros an hour for christ sake! Min wage is ABOSOLUTELY NOT the cause of the high cost of the price of goods in your local tesco, or dunnes for that matter! Next time your in Dunnes some afternoon take a look around at the number of staff actually stocking shelves.... il give you a hint.. you wont find ANY! They have merchandisers who come in to do if for them, who are NOT on the dunnes payroll.

The high cost of goods and services is due to greedy business owners in this country, in addition to high cost of overheads, excluding the hardworking people on min wage jobs, im sorry but if publis service workers thing a levy is unfair, then slashing the min wage is just plain in humaine. And the point being if you lower VAT the prices will come down FACT... unless greedy retailers decide to pocket the vat savings, decreasing the min wage will not lower costs, not by much anyway and the savings will be miniscule compared to the costs saved by reducing Vat.

The previous employer im talking about had only two staff on at any one time and 3 to 4 k coming in each evening, to say that lowering my wages would have significantly contributed to cutting his costs is laughable.. the real costs were insurance, esb, telephone, maintenance/upkeep of facility all totally unrelated to minimum wage.