Sir, – In his response to a query on residential property tax (Business, December 18th), Dominic Coyle points out that local authorities are responsible for payment of this tax for local authority housing under their jurisdiction.
This is in effect a form of double taxation on those who will be paying the tax in their own right, as it means that a significant portion of the tax collected will be used by local authorities to pay the tax levied on council housing and not on services for the community at large, such as roads and lighting.
Does such a situation occur in other countries to whom our Government says we should be compared as its justification for introducing this tax at this time? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I read with some wry amusement the protests of city dwellers at a valuation-based property tax.
Living as I do in a town where we have estates of empty factories, some 140 empty commercial properties, 25 per cent unemployment and huge uncertainty as to the future, it is not surprising that the area’s property valuations are on the floor.
In a recent visit to Dundrum Shopping Centre on a Tuesday evening we only managed to get seated in the sixth restaurant we visited. It brought home to us the stark contrast between those within and without the Pale.
I would only love to be able to pay at property values and incomes akin to those in Dublin. Fairness is in the eye of the beholder! – Yours, etc,