Mick Wallace underpayment of VAT

To paraphrase Clare Daly on Morning Ireland this morning ... "of course I believe that everybody should pay their taxes". Oh the irony/hypocrisy of it...
 
To paraphrase Clare Daly on Morning Ireland this morning ... "of course I believe that everybody should pay their taxes". Oh the irony/hypocrisy of it...

You know I am beginning to think that we should forgive Mick because of the discomfort he causing the loony left....Great seeing Richard, Joe, Clare and the others squirm in their seats. Who would have thought that a tax evading property developer would be able to make life so difficult for these people.
 
Perhaps Brendan and others can take a look at this:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/367149-m-j-wallace-accounts-2008.html
These are the latest filed accounts (2008) for Mick Wallace's M&J Wallace Ltd.
Note page 5 and perhaps 10..

Thanks for providing the links to the accounts.

Page 5 is the audit opinion?

Page 10 is various standard notes?

I don't see the signficance of either?

In general, the accounts would suggest that the company is heavily loss making but has net assets. However, as it was dependent on the banks, I would question the value of the assets. So, in effect, it was insolvent.

Note 10 shows €76,000 due in VAT. This would suggest that it was not just an incorrect VAT return. It would suggest that the accounts were deliberately falsified, understating the the VAT liability. If this is so, I don't know how he could claim that he was just deferring it. He would have to falsify them again in later years to overstate his VAT liability.

Note 17 showed that they employed 50 people full-time and paid them €2.5m in wages and salaries.

Note 16 shows that the two directors took salaries of €300,000 between them in 2008. Seems reasonable for a company of this size.
 
Note 16 shows that the two directors took salaries of €300,000 between them in 2008. Seems reasonable for a company of this size.

Directors remuneration doubled from previous year while Gross Profit was 1/4 of the previous year.
 
To paraphrase Clare Daly on Morning Ireland this morning ... "of course I believe that everybody should pay their taxes". Oh the irony/hypocrisy of it...

I think what she meant was that everybody should pay their taxes, except for those taxes which they don't like, such as the Household Charge.

Brendan
 
Many in the media seem to be defending Wallance - with the "those in glass-houses" defence.

If vat fraud was not detected - it is a loss for the state.

THe technical group have little credbility.
 
Like everyone else, when I first heard this I thought about garlic man. Mandie has put us right. That is not a comparable situation.

But for some reason Mandie has dived into a devil's advocate role which appears to have gone OTT. She suggests that if I tell A that I have a hitman on B knowing A will tell B then what's the problem? Overall, the guy in the pink shirt seems to have an awful lot to answer for and so too has the likes of Shane Ross for being palsy walsy with him.
 
Like everyone else, when I first heard this I thought about garlic man. Mandie has put us right. That is not a comparable situation.

But for some reason Mandie has dived into a devil's advocate role which appears to have gone OTT. She suggests that if I tell A that I have a hitman on B knowing A will tell B then what's the problem? Overall, the guy in the pink shirt seems to have an awful lot to answer for and so too has the likes of Shane Ross for being palsy walsy with him.

On "mature reflection" I accept that the hitman thing is a bit mad alright Your Grace, but I doubt it's true really (sounds like a bit of a macho story told to try and impress). And in my defence I was feeling ever so put upon at the time. Playing devil's advocate isn't much fun!

The point I was making, and I think Brendan agrees, if no-one else - is that when you look at the context of the thing, rather than just the black and white of it, one can understand how / why Wallace may have done what he did. It in no way excuses it or makes it acceptable, but it puts him in a different category from Mr Begley.

Having said that I do think the punishment in Begley's case was a bit OTT too, but as is often the case (rightly or wrongly), he was made an example of to send out a message.

Now people will say why isn't Wallace prosecuted too, but the facts of the case, and the burden of proof required to convict, may mean that a prosecution is simply not a runner.
 
Like everyone else, when I first heard this I thought about garlic man. Mandie has put us right. That is not a comparable situation.

But for some reason Mandie has dived into a devil's advocate role which appears to have gone OTT. She suggests that if I tell A that I have a hitman on B knowing A will tell B then what's the problem? Overall, the guy in the pink shirt seems to have an awful lot to answer for and so too has the likes of Shane Ross for being palsy walsy with him.

Oh yeah, and stop calling me Mandie, I'm not a girl!! (You'll have me paranoid now, wondering if I come across as effeminate!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benoit_Mandelbrot
 
Yep, I presume that's what DB74 means by him having prior form: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1205/wallacem.html

It happened around the same time as the messing with the VAT.

In my experience from dealing with builders, practically none of them were ever up to date with the CIF pension contributions, even before the crash arrived. But Wallace got headlines because of his profile.

What I see when I look at the whole sorry mess is a guy who was faced with imminent closure of his business and the loss of 50 jobs, and decided to try and defer the problem in the hope that things would recover. They didn't, he gambled and lost, and there should be a penalty for that. He should resign his Dail seat anyway, whatever about any punishments that may be imposed on him.

But to equate his behaviour with that of a guy who over a protracted period of time deliberately lined his own pockets at the expense of the exchequer (not to keep a struggling business afloat, but purely out of greed) is simply hysterical. They are miles apart.

Having said that, if someone can tell me definitively that the VAT wasn't accrued as a creditor on the company's accounts, then I'd have a very different opinion.

Now that we have seen Mr Wallace's accounts and they do not show the underpaid VAT accrued for, have you changed your opinion?
 
I don't know where this notion that Begley did what he did out of pure greed comes from
 
Oh yeah, and stop calling me Mandie, I'm not a girl!! (You'll have me paranoid now, wondering if I come across as effeminate!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benoit_Mandelbrot
Sorry:eek: No offence intended. To be on the safe side I always ascribe the female gender to anonymous handles, protects me from being dumped upon by the PC set;)

Dabbling in fractals can have the effect of always seeing the alternative view, but take care not to over indulge:)
 
Now that we have seen Mr Wallace's accounts and they do not show the underpaid VAT accrued for, have you changed your opinion?

Oh God yes! I can still understand why he did what he did, but the thing that he did now appears to be much worse than I had originally thought... in light of that it seems implausible that he was only intending to defer the liability...

I've had a look at the 2007 accounts as well, and it's hard to see where they could have over 1m of a VAT accrual parked on that Balance Sheet.

I've changed my opinion based on new information that I've become aware of; in fairness I did say clearly that if the VAT wasn't accrued it would change things!
 
Glad to hear that MR mandelbrot..:)
BTW ,I also thought you were female...why, I have no idea..:)
 
The discussion which compares Wallace and Garlic Guy is interesting but I think comparing Wallace and Lowery would be more usefull. Both are consumate self publicists and both are public representatives.

At the very least I would expect members of the governing parties to shun Wallace and not to give him any "special" status such as access to mininsters etc.
 
Glad to hear that MR mandelbrot..:)
BTW ,I also thought you were female...why, I have no idea..:)

Ah ye are all just picking on me now - I shoulda said nothing yesterday morning instead of deciding to play devil's advocate!! :D

(Seriously though, it has been an interesting discussion; we should all let off steam more often!)
 
It sure was,and made all the more interesting by your input.:)
In case you are still convinced that AAM is not representative of society in general, read on:
Joe Duffy did a poll,should Mick Wallace resign:
A ten minute poll returned the following:
11,985 YES, 3,549 NO.
 
It sure was,and made all the more interesting by your input.:)
In case you are still convinced that AAM is not representative of society in general, read on:
Joe Duffy did a poll,should Mick Wallace resign:
A ten minute poll returned the following:
11,985 YES, 3,549 NO.

Does that mean AAM is representative of the Joe Duffy show :eek::eek:
 
I don't know where this notion that Begley did what he did out of pure greed comes from

Do you have an alternative hypothesis? The reports on the case suggested that the business was very successful, which contrasts with the fact that Wallace got caught pulling a stroke at a time when the business was going to the wall.

It certainly looks like he was enjoying a nice lifestyle out of the profits of his fraud:
[broken link removed]
"The detached house, approached by a long driveway, is nestled in a quiet cul de sac in the western suburbs of Dublin and has stables in the back.
It has been described as a "state-of-the-art family residence" and "ideally suited to entertaining on a large scale"."
 
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