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Wealthiest 10% of Irish households have as much wealth as all others

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    #62
    keeponhurling
    Registered Users Posts: 5,315 ✭✭✭keeponhurling


    I have absolutely no issue with some people being richer than others, that's inevitable in a capitalist country. People should be rewarded for success, innovation etc. (otherwise no incentive to do anything)

    I do have an issue with the "rich" seeing housing as a place to invest their money. This has a negative impact for the country and means poorer (younger) citizens cannot afford their own home, or in some cases barely even aspire to it. It's much better that they use their riches to invest in industry or value creation through equities, bonds or whatever.

    The taxes and regulations around buying a 2nd home as an investment should be simply horrible. Buying larger numbers of existing (residential) properties should be almost illegal.



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    #63
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,511 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    The tax system encourages people to invest in housing in preference to other investments; gains that accrue from investment in your residence are free of CGT. That's a distortion which tends to drive up the price of houses.

    Ideally we want a housing market in which (a) houses, if properly maintained and cared for, generally hold their real value, so you don't lose by buying a house but you also don't see it as a route to wealth; and (b) the real value of houses is generally commensurate with earnings, so people earning an ordinary wage can reasonably aspire to own an ordinary house.



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    #64
    cnocbui
    Registered Users Posts: 20,081 ✭✭✭✭cnocbui


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121915940#Comment_121915940

    I would like to see the public servants responsible for Ireland's socialist and distorted - compared to OECD norms - tax policies, publicly outed. I don't think it fair or reasonable that people hiding in the shadows should be directing and shaping the nature of Irish society free from scrutiny.



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    #65
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,511 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121916860#Comment_121916860

    A CGT exemption for gains accruing to homeowners is pretty much the polar opposite of a socialist policy.

    Similarly, Ireland's relatively (compared to other OECD countries) low taxes on wealth/property/assets and relatively high taxes on income/earnings can be characterised in many ways, but "socialist" is definitely not one of them.

    I'm also a bit curious about this call for "outing". We know who the senior officials in the Department of Finance and in the Revenue Commissioners are. What else do you want to know about them? And, if you believe they are responsible for, and are directing, our tax policies, shouldn't your ire be directed less at them and more at TDs, who are actually in a position to control these things and furthermore have the constitutional responsibility for doing so? If you think it's being done by others, that can only be because the people who should be doing it — the people you elect to do it — have decided not to do it.

    Post edited by Peregrinus on


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