Irish Revenue Commissioners looking for more tax from 1,700 Old Age Pensioners
The Irish Revenue Commissioners is to swoop on up to 1,700 pensioners who may be liable for additional tax charges.
A source said today that the State body was preparing to trawl thousands of euro in backdated taxes from the group of OAPs.
The body wrote to a group of 1,200 retired individuals this week notifying them that they may be liable for extra charges.
Some 500 more are set to be contacted in the coming weeks.
Sources say some of these pensioners are suspected of “deliberately” evading tax.
A raft of letters was sent out this week to up to 1,700 homes with pensioners being told that “tax is now due on the pension income”.
The letter reads: “You are required to fully complete declaring all your sources of income. Upon receipt of these returns, we will set out your final liability which you should pay within 30 days or otherwise there may be penalties.”
Tax officials are understood to be preparing to look for taxes going back years and even decades.
Deadline: Those targeted are in a bracket which the Revenue feels may owe significant sums to the State.
Sources say a single person could be requested to pay €4,400 per year while a couple could be liable for €8,800.
A deadline of July 16 for the return form to be filed has been set, according to the letters.
One 70-year-old pensioner, who asked not to be named, expressed outrage with the Revenue Commissioners.
“I got this letter saying I could face penalties and charges and I don’t believe it’s justified. I’ve always paid my dues and now I have the taxman on to me.
“It’s a disgrace and it’s only the start. Why is it that the elderly are always targeted?”
The news comes just months after the Revenue Commissioners told up to 115,000 pensioners they may face a higher tax bill than expected.
The move was a PR disaster for the State body, which eventually admitted sending the letters was a mistake.
But the Revenue did vow to pursue up to 2,500 retired people with large private pensions who may have underpaid tax due on their State benefits.
Those affected have annual incomes of over €50,000, the body told the Herald.
Donegal club owners think they are above the law, says judge Kevin Kilrane
Club owners in a price war in a seaside resort in Bundoran were accused yesterday of believing they were above the law.
Solicitor Cathleen Dolan said Paris nightclub boss Conor McEniff, Bundoran, Co Donegal, was in contempt of court because he failed to obey an order two weeks ago to sell his drink at commercial prices.
She said at Ballyshannon District Court that he sold shorts last weekend for €2 each.
Two weeks ago the price war between Conor McEniff and his cousin Seánie McEniff, who runs Jumpin’ Jacks club in the same street, became an issue before Judge Kevin Kilrane when there was an application for a late- night licence. The judge was told then that Conor McEniff was offering drinks at 50 cent each while his cousin was serving “free drink” in return for a €20 admission fee.
Garda Insp Dennis Joyce said when gardaí inspected Paris they were told the €2 price was the same as was charged at weekends.
Ms Dolan, who represented parents of teenagers, said: “As a parent myself I am aware from my own personal knowledge of the prices being charged. These people feel they are above the law.” Judge Kilrane instructed all parties to revert to charging commercial prices.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi says it shattered her isolation.
And it ensured that the Burmese people were not forgotten & would have a democracy soon
Today Saturday in Oslo Norway — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi declared that the Nobel Peace Prize she won while under house arrest 21 years ago helped to shatter her sense of isolation and ensured that the world would demand democracy in her military-controlled homeland.
Suu Kyi received two standing ovations inside Oslo’s city hall as she gave her long-delayed acceptance speech to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in front of Norway’s King Harald, Queen Sonja and about 600 dignitaries. The 66-year-old champion of political freedom praised the power of her 1991 Nobel honor both for saving her from the depths of personal despair and shining an enduring spotlight on injustices in distant Myanmar.
Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Europe Wednesday, 24 years after she left to live in Burma. She’s the icon of Myanmar’s democracy movement, and Europeans want to know if the country’s recent reforms mean the end of its dictatatorship.
“Often during my days of house arrest, it felt as though I were no longer a part of the real world,” she said to a silent chamber, which was lined with rainbows of freshly cut chrysanthemums and towers of orchids for the occasion. “There was the house which was my world. There was the world of others who also were not free but who were together in prison as a community. And there was the world of the free. Each one was a different planet pursuing its own separate course in an indifferent universe.
“What the Nobel Peace Prize did was to draw me once again into the world of other human beings, outside the isolated area in which I lived, to restore a sense of reality to me. … And what was more important, the Nobel Prize had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma. We were not going to be forgotten,” she said during her 40-minute oration.
Suu Kyi, who since winning freedom in 2010 has led her National League for Democracy party into opposition in Myanmar’s parliament, offered cautious support for the first tentative steps toward democratic reform in her country. But she said progress depended on continued foreign pressure on the army-backed government.
“If I advocate cautious optimism, it is not because I do not have faith in the future, but because I do not want to encourage blind faith. Without faith in the future, without the conviction that democratic values and fundamental human rights are not only necessary but possible for our society, our movement could not have been sustained throughout the destroying years,” she said, referring to the past two decades since Myanmar’s military leaders rejected her party’s overwhelming triumph in 1990 elections, one year after Suu Kyi’s own imprisonment.
Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, introduced Suu Kyi as a leader of “awe-inspiring tenacity, sacrifice and firmness of principle.”
“In your isolation, you have become a moral leader for the whole world,” he said from the podium, turning to the seated Suu Kyi.
“Your voice became increasingly clear the more the military regime tried to isolate you. Your cause mobilized your people and prevailed over a massive military junta. Whenever your name is mentioned or when you speak, your words bring new energy and hope to the entire world,” Jagland said to applause.
Big breakthrough leaves positive outlook for our Irish fishing industry
THE BREAKTHROUGH ON FISH DISCARDS IS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT AT AN EU FISHERIES COUNCIL IN A DECADE, SAYS MINISTER SIMON COVENEY
This week saw a breakthrough agreement reached by EU fisheries ministers on ending the discarding of dead fish at sea. This is the most significant outcome at an EU Fisheries Council in more than a decade and will fundamentally change how fishermen operate at sea. Up to now, the Common Fisheries Policy forced fishermen to discard juvenile and mature fish that exceeded quota.
Fishermen and environmental groups are in agreement the discarding of dead fish at sea is not good for fishermen or for fish stocks. Fishermen often involuntarily end up catching juvenile fish or fish of a species for which they do not have quota and are then forced to throw the unwanted fish back into sea, dead. This has an obvious negative impact on the sustainability of stocks for the future, damaging both fishermen’s livelihoods and the environment.
The UN suggests the north east Atlantic has the second highest discards level in the world, estimated to be 1.3m tonnes annually. Most of these discards are attributed to EU fishermen carried out under the EU Common Fisheries Policy.
Since I took up office as Marine Minister, I was determined to find a real and effective solution that would end the discarding of fish at sea. I was conscious that any solution must be practical for fishermen and I was very concerned the proposal of Maria Damanaki, commissioner for fisheries, involving a simple immediate ban on discarding was too simplistic. After listening to fishermen’s concerns, I sent a proposal last week to all fisheries ministers in the EU and to Ms Damanaki involving three critical dimensions for a new discards policy. These are:
* A phasing in period;
* Additional quota to cover the additional landings involved;
* And measures that will stop the catching of juvenile fish.
I discussed this approach with fishing industry representatives last week and will meet them again on Monday. There were challenging negotiations over 20 hours. It became clear at the early stages the proposals I had circulated would be the basis for the compromise agreement. I worked with fellow ministers with divergent positions from those seeking to apply an immediate, simple ban like the Swedish minister to those, like the French minister, who pushed for a delay until 2020. The compromise reached is practical and has the following elements:
I discussed this approach with fishing industry representatives last week and will meet them again on Monday. There were challenging negotiations over 20 hours. It became clear at the early stages the proposals I had circulated would be the basis for the compromise agreement. I worked with fellow ministers with divergent positions from those seeking to apply an immediate, simple ban like the Swedish minister to those, like the French minister, who pushed for a delay until 2020. The compromise reached is practical and has the following elements:
* A phased introduction of ending discard starting on Jan 1, 2015 and applying to all species by 2018 for all whitefish stocks in our waters. An end to discarding of herring and mackerel by 2014.
* Ms Damanaki agreed fishermen should not be disadvantaged as a result of landing all their catches and accepted additional quota must be available to them.
* Finally, measures to avoid catching juvenile fish are to be introduced for each of the sea areas at regional level.
This agreement will not only have a positive environmental effect; it will also support the future of the industry by replenishing stocks. For the first time, I believe we have found a practical and workable solution.
Fishermen will move towards introducing measures such as using different fishing gear or closing of fishing areas where juvenile stocks are plentiful to avoid catching small fish. As these measures are introduced, the number of juvenile fish that are caught will reduce and quotas will better match the fish being caught and landed. This will allow juvenile fish to mature, fish stocks generally will improve and Irish fishermen will have larger quotas. I want to ensure the new policy does not make it profitable to land juvenile fish and we need to work further on this aspect.
This council agreed position will be negotiated with the EU parliament during the first half of 2013. There is a long way to go before the Common Fisheries Policy is agreed but the policy on discards will undoubtedly pave the way for a new approach to fishing in Irish waters. This will ensure our coastal communities will have a vibrant future.
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