The €22bn hole

[hopi watcher]

If it is in a Swiss bank I have no problem with this. I think legally it may not be possible though, and a FF government would rather sacrifice the first-born from their own families than do this.

But, if all the profits have been spent on fields in Leitrim and Offaly, what then? No cash, just fields..

A debt is a debt. Take the fields of course, or whatever other valuables that can be taken. Normal debt recovery stuff.

[sharper]

The tax is on windfall gains, therefore if the government indicate that such gains are to be controlled by whatever means, including retrospective taxation when such windfall gains are identified, that knowklegde would act as a deterent to people profiteering.

The purpose of the thread is to identify how to close the €22bn deficit, not to re engineer society according to your grand vision.

I believe a retrospective tax would increase rather than decrease the deficit for the reasons I outlined, do you have a response to that?

[DCon]

A debt is a debt. Take the fields of course, or whatever other valuables that can be taken. Normal debt recovery stuff.

The fields are worthless and will be owned by NAMA if the government get it through.

[HarshBuzz]

The fields are worthless though.

not to sheep

they might also be handy for coursing or other such rural pursuits

[hopi watcher]

The fields are worthless and will be owned by NAMA if the government get it through.

Read a little bit further on "or whatever other valuables can be taken". The fact remains that the debt is legitimate and the State would go after it. That is the remit of Revenue.

[DCon]

The purpose of the thread is to identify how to close the €22bn deficit, not to re engineer society according to your grand vision.

I believe a retrospective tax would increase rather than decrease the deficit for the reasons I outlined, do you have a response to that?

Hopi thinks that somebody has EUR 100 billion sitting in a bank account somewhere and taxing this will solve all our problems..

[orbit]

Yes which is why this is not a wealth tax but a retrospective tax which is my whole argument...

So what? Let's call it a retrospective tax. I'm saying it could be structured in a way that takes some account of ability to pay, eg. by accounting for capital losses since then. And it would be once-off, to help pay for the present catastrophe in an equitable fashion. CGT should be upped closer to marginal income tax rates going forward, so there would be no need for it in the future.

[sharper]

Read a little bit further on "or whatever other valuables can be taken". The fact remains that the debt is legitimate and the State would go after it. That is the remit of Revenue.

If a person sold land and bought a house with it should the house be taken by revenue? If they bought a car should the car be taken? If they bought stocks should the stocks be taken?

[sharper]

And it would be once-off, to help pay for the present catastrophe in an equitable fashion

If you can retrospectively tax in 2009 why can't you retrospectively tax in 2010, 2011, 2012 and so on?

[hopi watcher]

The purpose of the thread is to identify how to close the €22bn deficit, not to re engineer society according to your grand vision.

I believe a retrospective tax would increase rather than decrease the deficit for the reasons I outlined, do you have a response to that?

A retrospective tax would help. Your speculations on the matter are simply that, specualtion. There is no problem with the introduction of such a tax and its implementaion. The fact is that this govenrment may have no choice but to look at this proposal.