The Local Property Tax Bill is an assault on our civl liberties more suited to a totalitarian regime, according to the Can’t Pay Won’t Pay campaign which has vowed to fight the new tax.
A meeting of the campaign Steering Committee in Letterkenny last night agreed to maintain the boycott campaign and to look in detail through the legislation to devise the most effective strategy to deal with the Revenue.
“Having failed to break the hugely successful boycott of the hated Household Charge, the government has decided to give sweeping authoritarian powers to the Revenue,” said spokesperson Francis McCafferty.
“The Revenue will now be able to appoint ‘authorised agents’ who will have a right to enter your property to ensure that you are declaring the correct value of your home. This ‘snoop squad’ will be checking that you have not added anything, like an extension, which has increased the value of your home. It is reminiscent of the ‘window tax’ from the darkest days of our history.”
“This completely changes our relationship with the Revenue. Gone is the notion that your dealings with Revenue are confidential. Even if you are entirely compliant you may still get a visit from the ‘snoop squad’. For the first time third parties, most likely auctioneers, will be given details of your tax liabilities and furthermore paid to snoop on the general population.”
“Other sections of the Property Tax Bill turn the concept of natural justice on it’s head. The Revenue can dictate your liability even in the absence of documentary evidence. The onus has completely changed. If Revenue decide you are the person in the household responsible for paying the tax, it’s up to you to prove otherwise. This gives rise to a ‘squealer’ clause where children must name their parent, spouses and partners must rat on each other and tenants must grass up their landlord. Failure to do so means you are held liable. Either you act as an ‘agent’ for the Revenue or they will penalise you. It is a sinister and authoritarian measure.”
“PAYE workers will be hit with deductions from wages. That is income tax by a different name. Those in Social Housing will now pay through rent rises of €2 a week as councils will now have to pay the tax on all their rented properties. Councils will have the power to levy an additional 15% on top of the base rate Property Tax on all of us next year.”
“Not only are we being made to pay for the gambling losses of the bondholders and the greed of the bankers and developers, we are now facing an assault on our civil liberties more suited to a totalitarian regime for the crime of standing up for ourselves against unfair an immoral taxes.”
“We will develop a strategy to fight against the Property Tax in conjunction with the national campaign. Anyone who has not paid their Household Charge will see the amount liable ‘frozen’ at €130 until the end of March next year. It is a victory for the non-payment campaign that all the threats of huge fines and court action has had to be abandoned in the face of our determined boycott. It shows the power we have as ordinary citizens if we take a stand together.”