T
Tommy
Guest
tax evasion & the banks
Hi Rainyday,
I suppose my lengthy posting might have shown the signs of something getting up my nose - if that worries you, it shouldn't - I was of course looking forward to the cheery prospect of driving home on a dark winter's Friday evening!
I take your point regarding the evils of tax evasion. Just for the record, and to rebut one particular point in your reply, in no way was I attempting to apologise for tax evasion or to say that it is acceptable, even in small doses. I'm sure you'll understand that it is important for me to make this distinction.
You are right on the issue of tax fiddling and unfair competition, but to tell you the truth I would have personally no fear of competing against a black economy competitor, even though that may be because of the business I'm in. There's not much point in a black economy "accountant" trying to represent his clients properly if he can't disclose the existence of his accountancy business to the Revenue! Whatever about my other competitors in the market, I think I have little to fear from the "cash" operators - this would be different, for example, if I was, say, a construction tradesman.
I may not be fully correct in saying that the banks require declarations of tax compliance from mortgage applicants - they definitely do so for self-employed borrowers both for mortgages and other loans. I'm not sure if this is done for other classes of borrower, although I do think it would be a good idea from everyone's viewpoint to extend this to all borrowers. This would go some way towards addressing your original concerns.
I hope you didn't take offence that I seemed to lump you in with all the others in the 'holier than thou' camp. You could have been forgiven for assuming so, yet that wasn't intended. What I was getting at may be a pet gripe ( and incidentally strays way off the original topic) but I am really fed up with what I see as rank hypocrisy on the part of the Irish people. A few years ago, if we did something wrong we would keep our mouths shut and hope that our indiscretion would be forgotten. Nowadays we are too busy hectoring and shouting at everyone else to take any responsibility for our own actions. I'll give you another example to try to illustrate what I mean.
Coming up to every Christmas, we all read countless newspaper articles and media reports on the unacceptable carnage on our roads. Almost all these items concentrate almost exclusively on the evils of drink driving and inexperienced drivers. On my daily commute these mornings (on the main N3 road) I see drivers take chances with their own and others' lives that would make your hair stand on end.(even what's left of it!) This is a time of day when there is nobody driving with even a smidgin of drink on them and the drivers taking the risks are generally not young bucks of 19 or 21 driving battered 10-year old Bluebirds or Kadetts, but the well-off 30-, 40-, 50-, and 60-somethings driving gleaming 01-reg or 00-reg BMW's, Mercs and the like. (Interestingly the worst offenders seem mostly to be Dublin registrations) I rarely hear anyone complaining about this craziness yet if any of us were to mention in social company that we might occasionally drive home from the pub with 1 or 2 pints on board, we would be treated like an outcast.
Its easy to blame the anonymous drunk or young thrillseeker for road fatalities - less so to finger the Minister for Justice who allowed his children to be driven home at 100mph or the pillars of society who daily parade their brand new jeeps around the towns of Ireland, blissfully ignorant of the bull bars on the front of their vehicles that would pulverise, even in a minor collision, any pedestrian unlucky enough to get in their way. And, lets face it, those of us who drive all do so from time to time in an impatient, hurried or plain reckless manner - but again its easier to blame the obvious targets, than it is to ask ourselves awkward questions, so the problem never solves itself.
That's where my comments on attitudes towards tax evasion were coming from. As far as I can see, we as a people have a lot of growing up to do in many areas - tax evasion is one, road safety is another, waste policies yet another - yet we seem to think we're the best in the world, and we don't mind telling everyone about it. We used to love to poke fun at our neighbours across the Irish Sea for having similar attitudes, now we've turned into our own parody. Its funny what a bit of money does......
Meanwhile, and finally, back to your original query - and don't give up - I'll do my best (unofficially) to find an answer to your query. No time better than the Christmas party season to prise open the darkest of secrets from even the most fastidious of bankers!
I'll keep you posted.
regards
Tommy
p.s
Thanks jem,
I've always wondered why everything is so expensive in Switzerland. Must ask for cash prices the next time I'm there!
Hi Rainyday,
I suppose my lengthy posting might have shown the signs of something getting up my nose - if that worries you, it shouldn't - I was of course looking forward to the cheery prospect of driving home on a dark winter's Friday evening!
I take your point regarding the evils of tax evasion. Just for the record, and to rebut one particular point in your reply, in no way was I attempting to apologise for tax evasion or to say that it is acceptable, even in small doses. I'm sure you'll understand that it is important for me to make this distinction.
You are right on the issue of tax fiddling and unfair competition, but to tell you the truth I would have personally no fear of competing against a black economy competitor, even though that may be because of the business I'm in. There's not much point in a black economy "accountant" trying to represent his clients properly if he can't disclose the existence of his accountancy business to the Revenue! Whatever about my other competitors in the market, I think I have little to fear from the "cash" operators - this would be different, for example, if I was, say, a construction tradesman.
I may not be fully correct in saying that the banks require declarations of tax compliance from mortgage applicants - they definitely do so for self-employed borrowers both for mortgages and other loans. I'm not sure if this is done for other classes of borrower, although I do think it would be a good idea from everyone's viewpoint to extend this to all borrowers. This would go some way towards addressing your original concerns.
I hope you didn't take offence that I seemed to lump you in with all the others in the 'holier than thou' camp. You could have been forgiven for assuming so, yet that wasn't intended. What I was getting at may be a pet gripe ( and incidentally strays way off the original topic) but I am really fed up with what I see as rank hypocrisy on the part of the Irish people. A few years ago, if we did something wrong we would keep our mouths shut and hope that our indiscretion would be forgotten. Nowadays we are too busy hectoring and shouting at everyone else to take any responsibility for our own actions. I'll give you another example to try to illustrate what I mean.
Coming up to every Christmas, we all read countless newspaper articles and media reports on the unacceptable carnage on our roads. Almost all these items concentrate almost exclusively on the evils of drink driving and inexperienced drivers. On my daily commute these mornings (on the main N3 road) I see drivers take chances with their own and others' lives that would make your hair stand on end.(even what's left of it!) This is a time of day when there is nobody driving with even a smidgin of drink on them and the drivers taking the risks are generally not young bucks of 19 or 21 driving battered 10-year old Bluebirds or Kadetts, but the well-off 30-, 40-, 50-, and 60-somethings driving gleaming 01-reg or 00-reg BMW's, Mercs and the like. (Interestingly the worst offenders seem mostly to be Dublin registrations) I rarely hear anyone complaining about this craziness yet if any of us were to mention in social company that we might occasionally drive home from the pub with 1 or 2 pints on board, we would be treated like an outcast.
Its easy to blame the anonymous drunk or young thrillseeker for road fatalities - less so to finger the Minister for Justice who allowed his children to be driven home at 100mph or the pillars of society who daily parade their brand new jeeps around the towns of Ireland, blissfully ignorant of the bull bars on the front of their vehicles that would pulverise, even in a minor collision, any pedestrian unlucky enough to get in their way. And, lets face it, those of us who drive all do so from time to time in an impatient, hurried or plain reckless manner - but again its easier to blame the obvious targets, than it is to ask ourselves awkward questions, so the problem never solves itself.
That's where my comments on attitudes towards tax evasion were coming from. As far as I can see, we as a people have a lot of growing up to do in many areas - tax evasion is one, road safety is another, waste policies yet another - yet we seem to think we're the best in the world, and we don't mind telling everyone about it. We used to love to poke fun at our neighbours across the Irish Sea for having similar attitudes, now we've turned into our own parody. Its funny what a bit of money does......
Meanwhile, and finally, back to your original query - and don't give up - I'll do my best (unofficially) to find an answer to your query. No time better than the Christmas party season to prise open the darkest of secrets from even the most fastidious of bankers!
I'll keep you posted.
regards
Tommy
p.s
Thanks jem,
I've always wondered why everything is so expensive in Switzerland. Must ask for cash prices the next time I'm there!
