Stamp Duty to Stay alongside new Property Tax

Dublin South West TD  Seán Crowe has called on the Government to abandon its plan for a property tax. The Tallaght based Deputy made his call after a parliamentary question placed to the Finance Minister Michael Noonan revealed this week that he has no plans to abolish Stamp Duty when he introduces his new property tax. Crowe said that flaws surrounding the establishment and implementation of the property tax are mounting.and plans for it should be dropped in favour of a wealth tax.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“The Parliamentary Question returned  this week confirms that the Government is looking at double taxation – a property tax and stamp duty on hard pressed homeowners. If the property tax goes ahead we are looking at a situation where a families either purchasing for the first time or who bought a house several years ago and paid thousands in stamp duty will also be expected to pay a property tax.

“It is truly remarkable that the Government thinks it is acceptable to double tax a family home because it does not have the wit or imagination to come up with fair and workable deficit proposals.

“I am urging this Government to abandon its property tax plan which is looking more and more to be ill thought out, unfair and economically damaging. The administration of this tax will be a bureaucratic nightmare and it is not clear whether Revenue has the capacity to audit that many households to ensure compliance.

“The tax will target householders regardless of how much they owe the bank, negative equity and what stamp duty they’ve paid. And as it will hit disproportionately ordinary middle income families, the money they have to spend in the local economy will be further diminished.

“The tax measures in budget 2013 have to work and work fairly. A wealth tax would target wealth and property above an appropriate threshold and because it is targeted at a smaller number of individuals it’s easier to implement. This is the new tax the Government should introduce.”