Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG Monday

Irish household tax dodgers pay up as Revenue closes in

         

REVENUE CHIEF JOSEPHINE FEEHILY SAID SHE WILL USE A A RANGE OF POWERS TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE.

Irish homeowners who dodged paying the €100 household charge are being flushed out by fears they will be targeted by the taxman.

A flood of household tax protesters are paying up ahead of the first property tax deadline, which falls tomorrow.

The Revenue Commissioners will take over responsibility for collecting both taxes from July 1, and has promised to chase any tax evaders.

In the past week alone, almost 20,000 homeowners have paid the household charge – in a massive surge.

Government sources say the rise in homeowners suddenly paying the household charge is down to the fear of Revenue being on their trail – and the risk of having all their income audited.

Revenue is expected to target those who failed to pay the household charge in the first wave of enforcement.

It will use a database identifying the 1.2 million households who have paid the charge and will cross-reference it with details of those sent property tax demand letters. A comparison of both databases will help identify non-payers.

“Over the last number of weeks there has been a lot of interest in paying up on the household charge arrears,” a government source said.

“The first thing Revenue will look at when they get the list is the people who haven’t paid the household charge. They are putting themselves up in lights if they haven’t paid the household charge.”

Similar to the Revenue’s policy on income tax dodgers, failure to pay the property tax will result in people running the risk of an audit.

They also face the prospect of being hit with hefty late-payment interest of 8pc, additional cash penalties and the possibility of being prosecuted.

In the past week alone, some 19,478 household charge rebels paid up as the arrival of the property tax made them anxious about being caught.

This is almost a three-fold increase on the previous week, when 7,753 paid. Almost 1.2 million households have now paid the tax, or 74pc.

Revenue has a lot more power to enforce payment than the local authorities did under the household charge, and often cites the threat of an audit for taxpayers who fail to file their tax returns on time.

Chairwoman Josephine Feehily said she was confident that 97pc of people would pay the property tax, and will use a range of powers to ensure compliance.

They include taking the tax from PAYE workers’ pay packets, drawing the money through attachment of bank accounts and taking deductions from state payments.

Evaders may also be tracked through power or phone providers, the HSE, or the Private Residential Tenancies Board.

Most of this year is expected to focus on updating the database of compliant households, with enforcement action expected to begin later this year.

Services

Environment Minister Phil Hogan said that some €125.7m has been collected through the household charge, which had been allocated to local authorities to provide essential services.

But he warned that the Revenue Commissioners would chase evaders.

“In the last few years Irish people have had a tough time of it and, in spite of that, nearly 1.2 million people paid the household charge,” he said.

“We are on the road to economic recovery but it is a road that requires difficult decisions. This Government is prepared to take the hard decisions that will get us there.

“The tax base in Ireland will be broadened this year with the introduction of the Local Property Tax and in the long run this will provide local authorities with the ability to raise funding locally and spend it on necessary local services.

“Any liability to the household charge that remains un-discharged on July 1, 2013, shall be treated as a charge of €200 to local property tax that is due and payable on that date.”

A €30 penalty was added to the €100 household charge on January 1 for those who had not paid. This has since increased to €144, and will rise to €145 next month and to €200 from July 1 – the day Revenue takes responsibility for collecting it.

FG confirms changes to abortion Bill are possible

  

TDs and Senators will be allowed to deliberate on ‘small print’ of legislation

Fine Gael has confirmed anti-abortion backbenchers will be able to introduce amendments to proposed legislation, in a move that could set the party on a collision course with Labour.

Fine Gael chairman Charlie Flanagan insisted the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill would not be “rubber-stamped”, with TDs and Senators getting numerous opportunities to “deliberate on the small print” of the law.

However, Labour says it is determined that the Bill will pass through the Oireachtas unamended, with a senior party source firmly rejecting three proposed alterations which some Fine Gael backbenchers are seeking.

These include the introduction of a “gestational cut-off point” after which terminations cannot be performed in cases where the mother is suicidal, along with a “review” of the legislation after 12 months if abortion figures escalate.

A third amendment being sought is legal representation for the unborn child if a woman is granted a termination on grounds of suicide.

No fait accompli
Mr Flanagan said: “There will be an opportunity for amendments. This isn’t just a parliamentary rubber-stamp. I wouldn’t like people to think that this is a fait accompli because it isn’t.

The Oireachtas health committee hearings on the “heads” or broad outline of the Bill begin next week, and once published the legislation must pass through various stages in the Dáil and Seanad.

However, Mr Flanagan stressed the extent to which amendments would be accepted “is one for debate and deliberation”. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said yesterday the “review” proposal would be a matter for discussion at the health committee hearings.

Responding for the first time to the Catholic bishops’ description of the planned law as “morally unacceptable”, Mr Kenny said Ireland was a republic, in which politicians had a “duty and responsibility” to legislate.

“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion here but, as I explained to the cardinal and members of the church, my book is the Constitution and the Constitution is determined by the people,” he said.

The people’s wishes
“We live in a republic and I have a duty and responsibility as head of Government to legislate in respect of what the people’s wishes are.”

Mr Kenny expressed the hope the Government could “bring everybody with us” on this matter, but senior party figures remain concerned about the voting intentions of a small number of deputies.

Minister of State for equality and mental health Kathleen Lynch of Labour said any Government, “either now or in the future” could repeal any piece of legislation.

In response to the bishops’ suggestion that the Bill “appears to impose a duty on Catholic hospitals to provide abortions”, Ms Lynch told RTÉ Radio One’s This Weekprogramme it was “only reasonable” that facilities funded by the State complied with the law of the land.

Mr Kenny said the people’s wishes had been determined and set out by the Supreme Court judgment on the X case. “It is time to bring clarity and certainty to it. ”

Asked if Fine Gael members were concerned about excommunication from the Catholic Church, he said: “I have my own way of speaking to my God.”

A 15 year old boy develops dipstick test for cancer

  

Experts say the pancreatic dipstick stands a chance of becoming the world’s best and cheapest test for the disease.

A 15-year-old US high school student whose uncle died of pancreatic cancer has developed the first test for the disease that could detect tumours before they become too advanced to treat.

Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate for any cancer, which has remained unchanged for 40 years. It is symptomless in its early stages and strikes more than 8 000 people a year in the UK and 45 000 in the US. Four in five patients are inoperable by the time they are diagnosed and fewer than four in 100 live for five years.

Jack Andraka wrote from his home in Maryland to 200 professors seeking laboratory time to develop his idea for a screening test that would be as simple to use as a pregnancy test. The son of a civil engineer and an anaesthetist, he got the idea after researching the problem on the web and coming up with a system.

Of the 200 professors, 199 rejected or ignored him. But Professor Anirban Maitra, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, an expert in the genetics of pancreatic cancer, was intrigued. He invited Jack to come and speak to specialists in the disease who interrogated him for more than an hour.

At the end of the interview, the specialists were sufficiently impressed to allow him space in their laboratory to develop his system. The result was a dipstick paper sensor that detects the level of a protein called mesothelin in the urine (or blood) which is a biomarker for pancreatic cancer.

It is 168 times faster than the existing, inaccurate method of measuring serum tumour markers, more sensitive and, at 5 cents each, cheap. It won the $75 000 (about R680 000) Grand Jury prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair last year. Jack was recently invited to speak at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) in London.

Experts say the pancreatic dipstick stands a chance of becoming the world’s best and cheapest test for the disease – but it will take many years of trials and further development before it can be made commercially available. Several pharmaceutical companies are said to be interested.

Jack was invited by Michelle Obama to the State of the Union address in February, where Barack Obama told the crowd what he had achieved. “Not bad for a guy who is just barely old enough to drive,” the President joked.

When Jack was asked at the RSM meeting whether he was worried that, having sent his idea round to so many experts, somebody else might take it up and develop it, he replied that it would not have mattered because it was for the benefit of humankind. That won him the loudest applause of the day.

Mentor’s view’An honour to have him in my lab’Jack Andraka’s mentor, Professor Anirban Maitra, said: “Jack Andraka is fabulous. I have been delighted and honoured to have him in my lab. He sent me a nice write-up on his lab plans and research, very interesting coming from a 15-year-old boy… I am fortunate to have answered his email.”

Steve Pereira, a member of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s medical advisory board and consultant gastroenterologist at University College Hospital, London, said: “It is very impressive that a 15-year-old can be interested and stimulated to look into an area that is under-researched.

“Mesothelin has been looked at before but the innovation was to develop the test as a dipstick for urine… The excitement is in using new technology to bind an antibody to a dipstick and then use it like a pregnancy test.” – The Independent

RNLI volunteers prove to be Koda the dog's best friend after fall from cliff

   

VOLUNTEER RNLI CREW MEMBERS ABOVE NICK SEARLS AND IAN FITZGERALD WHO RESCUED KODA WHO FELL OFF A CLIFF IN SANDYCOVE, CO CORK

Man’s best friend has learned that a dog’s own best buddy is an RNLI volunteer.

Koda, a pedigree husky, can testify to that fact after owing her life to Cork RNLI volunteers Nick Searls and Ian Fitzgerald

Koda was inspecting the coastline around Sandycove, outside Kinsale, when she got too close to the edge and slipped over the cliff.

The dog landed in water with a strong current that swept her more than 100 metres out to sea despite her desperate struggles to reach the shore.

A jagged reef also meant that her owner, Sally Anne Baggy, couldn’t get close enough to help drag the struggling dog from the water.

Luckily, two Kinsale RNLI volunteers were at the scene within minutes, and realised the danger facing the terrified dog.

Nick Searls dived into the heavy seas and swam over 200 metres to reach the now-floundering animal.

He managed to attach a harness and was able to swim slowly back to shore, dragging the weakened Koda with him.

Nick was then assisted by safety line out of the sea by Ian Fitzgerald.

Koda was immediately taken to a Kinsale vet, who said that, despite being exhausted and shocked, the dog was none the worse for her ordeal.

80% of Irish employees spend 56 minutes of working day on social media

      

46% of employers do not have policy on use of websites such as Twitter and Facebook

The browsing of social media services takes up an average of 56 minutes of the working day for more than 80 per cent of Irish employees, a report issued today claims.

Law firm William Fry, which published the report, said that even though 40 per cent of companies had imposed work-time bans on websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, employees were using their mobiles or other devices to get around the restrictions.

The report claims that 46 per cent of Irish employers do not have a social media policy in place, which the law firm said left businesses open to internal disputes, abuse and potential litigation.

However, William Fry associate Catherine O’Flynn said there was a limited value to placing absolute restrictions on social media use by staff.

“Instead, companies should focus on defining realistic limits for access to social media in the workplace,” she said.

The report is based on a combination of telephone and online polling by market research firm Amárach. A total of 200 companies each employing more than 50 people were surveyed by telephone and 500 employes were surveyed online.

The research found there was little clarity when it came to ownership of work related social media accounts, with confusion over what happens to work contacts when an employee leaves a company.

Just 17 per cent of employers who responded to the survey said they had discussed this matter with their employees.

“As the economy recovers and movement within the job market increases, these issues will arise more frequently,” the report says.

It also warns employers that they could be held liable for acts of bullying, harassment or discrimination carried out by employees on social media sites, even if they were carried out without the consent or knowledge of management.

“It will be helpful to an employer’s defence to show that they took practical steps to prevent the act complained of, by having a social media policy which identifies and requires appropriate employee conduct on social media sites,” the report adds.

Almost three quarters of employers (73 per cent) said they were not concerned that confidential business information might be posted on social media sites by employees.

Some 56 per cent of respondents said they encourage their employees to report negative comments made about their business, but 38 per cent of workers said they would do nothing if they came across negative comments about their employer on social media.

workers said they would do nothing if they came across negative comments about their employer on social media.