# How much private wealth is in Ireland?



## baldyman27 (16 Apr 2009)

I ahve been wondering about this for a while, there must be a considerable amount of money in this country held by private individuals after the boom years. Although this may seem extreme and somewhat fascist, what if the Govt. were to 'seize' a percentage of that wealth, say even 2%, with a committal to repay it with interest within a certain period of time. Would this be less expensive than borrowing on the international markets? Hugely controversial, I know, but would it ever be an option?


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## Timbo (16 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> I ahve been wondering about this for a while, there must be a considerable amount of money in this country held by private individuals after the boom years. Although this may seem extreme and somewhat fascist, what if the Govt. were to 'seize' a percentage of that wealth, say even 2%, with a committal to repay it with interest within a certain period of time. Would this be less expensive than borrowing on the international markets? Hugely controversial, I know, but would it ever be an option?


 
The hold-up, er. I mean budget, was last week.


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## UptheDeise (16 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> I ahve been wondering about this for a while, there must be a considerable amount of money in this country held by private individuals after the boom years. Although this may seem extreme and somewhat fascist, what if the Govt. were to 'seize' a percentage of that wealth, say even 2%, with a committal to repay it with interest within a certain period of time. Would this be less expensive than borrowing on the international markets? Hugely controversial, I know, but would it ever be an option?


 

The government most certainly should not do this. This is a tax on the wealthy. The last thing we need is people moving their money out of the country. Wealthy people might even migrate abroad taking their wealth and jobs with them.

I do sincerely hope that government ministers don't read this board because they are desperate for cash now and will welcome your suggestion wholeheartily.


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## Lex Foutish (16 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> I ahve been wondering about this for a while, there must be a considerable amount of money in this country held by private individuals after the boom years. Although this may seem extreme and somewhat fascist, what if the Govt. were to 'seize' a percentage of that wealth, say even 2%, with a committal to repay it with interest within a certain period of time. Would this be less expensive than borrowing on the international markets? Hugely controversial, I know, but would it ever be an option?


 
Not sure that'd work but maybe they could invite the holders of this wealth to do so on a voluntary basis.


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## extopia (16 Apr 2009)

Well, I'm sure there are plenty of wealthy individuals who would be willing to voluntarily invest in an emergency government bond. Why should you think the money would have to be "seized" by the government? I don't think we're that kind of country (yet).


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## baldyman27 (17 Apr 2009)

I meant my post as a theoretical question, apologies if it came across as a suggestion. Does anyone have an idea of how much wealth there actually is in the country though?


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## Protocol (17 Apr 2009)

I think the Central Bank develop estimates of wealth.

www.centralbank.ie


I'll have a look for you now.


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## Protocol (17 Apr 2009)

See p73 of this CB bulletin. It's an article on household's net worth:

[broken link removed]


2007 = 115bn of net financial wealth, after deducting liabilities
2007 = 485bn of housing assets

2007 = 600bn of net worth


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## baldyman27 (17 Apr 2009)

Protocol said:


> See p73 of this CB bulletin. It's an article on household's net worth:
> 
> [broken link removed]
> 
> ...


 
So is that 115bn sitting in bank accounts or does it include investments, etc.? Has it ever happened in any country that the govt. did seize private wealth from individuals?


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## UptheDeise (17 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> So is that 115bn sitting in bank accounts or does it include investments, etc.? Has it ever happened in any country that the govt. did seize private wealth from individuals?


 

Yes, it happened during the nazi, communist and fascist eras.

Also Italy introduce a tax on peoples wealth a few years back.


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## Deiseblue (18 Apr 2009)

UptheDeise said:


> Yes, it happened during the nazi, communist and fascist eras.
> 
> Also Italy introduce a tax on peoples wealth a few years back.


And you can add Ireland to that list , Wealth Tax was introduced in 1975 under a Fine Gael/Labour Government and abolished by FF in 1977


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## Protocol (19 Apr 2009)

Several countries have taxes on wealth.

I think France and Switz have wealth taxes.


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## Purple (19 Apr 2009)

The Swiss have a marvellous system where if you are wealthy enough you can negotiate your income tax rate with the Canton you live in (or the one you want to move to). Just about as un-egalitarian as you can get.


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## Purple (19 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> So is that 115bn sitting in bank accounts or does it include investments, etc.? Has it ever happened in any country that the govt. did seize private wealth from individuals?



The figures are from 2007. Lots has happened (and none of it good) since then; most of that money was probably in property, bonds, and stocks and shares


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