For months, we heard about change and spreading the wealth around, and for months we heard pundits expound on the effects of such an alteration to the tax code in a time of recession.
How can the Obama/Biden proposals be tested? Like everything else, this too has been outsourced overseas.
The Irish government is facing some tough times, not unlike all the other nations around the globe. Money's tight and expenses won't budge, so the citizens of the Emerald Isle will have to pay more taxes. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has been sharpening his pencil while tabulating numbers that don't add up.
The latest version of the Finance Bill includes a new provision to soak the rich in exactly the same manner as the Democrats in Washington have proposed. Anyone earning more than 250,000 (euros in this case) will face an additional levy of 3%. Anyone making below the minimum wage will be exempt from any increase.
Taxes on estates will climb to 22%, so if your elderly relatives are looking weak, you'd want to encourage them to liquidate all assets and hand you all their cash before they shuffle off the mortal coil. But on the sly, of course, because gifts are to taxed at the same higher rate.
Noel Dempsey, Minister for Transportation, is looking at a 10% rise in fares for public transit, while other Cabinet ministers are hunting for excess fiscal fat that's slated for liposuction.
Ireland's in a recession, there's been a spate of job losses, and if the new tax measures don't send the nation into a financial tailspin, Washington will have a fine example to point to come January when the new Congress convenes.
If the tax increases in Ireland send wealth fleeing, if the expected millions don't appear and the jobless rate soars, expect every Republican in Congress to point fingers overseas as they argue against any revisions to the U.S. tax code.
Either way, Ireland's to be the proving ground. There's nothing wrong with outsourcing some things, is there?
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