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Question: I didn’t get a reminder last year about the property tax and my neighbour has just told me that it’s past the deadline, which he was notified about. To be honest, I forgot about it. Can I get an extension and was there an issue with notifications? When I was working, I normally paid in one go, but this year would prefer to do it out of my pension monthly since I am retired.

Answer: Your neighbour is correct regarding the deadline, but perhaps it isn’t too late to do something about it. The Local Property Tax (LPT) was due on January 11. However, for many paying on direct debit or through a deduction from a State benefit, it simply rolls over and continues as normal, so there is nothing for them to do.

For those who normally pay on a once-off basis like you, you could do it immediately or complete a Single Debit Authority, in which case it won’t leave your account until March 21. I don’t know why you didn’t get a notification, but if you were self-employed, it would have gone into your ROS inbox, rather than in the post, so do check there! Since you have retired, you may not have been accessing it regularly.

Either way, you now wish to change the method of payment. That ought to have been notified to Revenue by November 25 in order for them to make the change, as the first instalment would have come out this month via your pension. It may be too late to change it now, but I would definitely give them a call on their 1890 200 255 helpline.
You will need your Property ID (from last year) and your PIN number which you would have used to pay. They may be happy to make an arrangement with you if you get in touch immediately.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Prices were flat last month when compared with a year earlier.

The plunge in the value of sterling as a result of the Brexit vote has dampened inflationary pressure in the economy, experts said.
This is because we import a vast amount of raw materials and finished goods from Britain.

The Central Statistics Office said there was no change in overall prices in the month of December, and no change when prices are compared with the same month a year earlier.
“Prices on average, as measured by the consumer price index, remained unchanged in December compared with December 2015,” the CSO said.

Motor insurance premiums rose by 1.8pc in December, an increase of 8.9pc in the past year.
But the rate of rise is slowing. Rises of up to 40pc in the annual cost of motor insurance had been recorded at one stage last summer.

This prompted the Government to set up a working group to tackle the high costs of cover.
The CSO said prices overall were muted last month due to falls in the cost of alcohol, and clothing and footwear.

Since last year there have been falls in the cost of furnishings and communication prices.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Fianna Fáil is to move swiftly in efforts to close a loophole in pensions law which allows solvent companies to leave pensioners in the lurch.

The party’s welfare spokesman, Willie O’Dea, has drafted an amendment to the 1990 Pensions Act which would make it harder for companies still doing business to wind up so-called ‘defined benefit’ schemes.
The key measure in the law change would empower the Pensions Authority to block the shutting down of pension schemes under certain conditions.

The initiative follows a number of controversies in recent times, including a move by Independent News and Media to stop contributions to its staff defined benefit scheme, which caused a political storm last month. Under the law change, the Pensions Authority would be able to oblige companies to make good deficits in the scheme before closing it.
“That would help pensioners get their entitlements and stop some worrying practices which were often profoundly unfair and risked leading to hardship,” Mr O’Dea said.

The draft law change is based on a similar law now in force in Britain. But it has been modified to take account of problems which have arisen in that jurisdiction in cases where companies’ solvency has been threatened by unduly harsh pension obligations.
Mr O’Dea said the modification would allow up to 50pc of the deficit to be paid up. He said this level of top-up could often prove sufficient to meet pensioners’ needs without jeopardising a company’s existence.

Mr O’Dea is also asking the Pensions Authority to investigate the prospect of setting up a central fund, via a levy on pension funds, to help top up pensions in cases of company insolvency. He is also seeking a report on how pension liabilities are calculated, amid claims that these are too onerous

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

A young man working in Dublin’s tech hub has created an innovative, transparent way of giving to charity – that also aims gives something back to the donor.

Alain Buffing has transformed his disappointment following a volunteering trip abroad into a globally connected non-profit organisation underpinned by his office’s leading technology.
“In previous roles in the tech space, firms offered employees time off to go volunteering,” he told independent.ie.

“I really loved to travel so I went to Guatemala and Nicaragua to help build schools and provide water to the local communities. I really felt like I was giving something back until I realised how the funds were distributed.”
For Alain’s first trip, he fundraised over €2,000 beforehand, some of which was to go towards covering travel, accomodation and food expenses.

“The places we stayed in were quite basic and expenses were kept to a minimum but I found out that only €700 of that total went to the charity work. A large portion went towards the charity’s administration costs and that sparked a little bit of shame.”
Alain decided to organise his own project in Kenya with his friend Joy Reiche who he met in Munich ten years ago.

Joy’s father established the organisation Forum for Development Malindi (FDM) in 2003 to support the orphaned and vulnerable children in and around Malindi. This inspired Joy to establish the non-profit organisation Pendo Kenia in 2011.

“Pendo Kenia, has helped children from poor background get access to primary education and proper nutrition. So far they have build over twenty schools where more than 2,500 children have found refuge.

In the spring of 2016, Alain visited the project with four of his colleagues at Salesforce where they constructed hygenic toilets for the community and renovated some of the schools.
A self-confessed social media addict, it was the feedback Alain received from this volunteer trip – that saw all funds raised injected directly into the community – that prompted him to step his own charity idea up a notch.

“I moved to a new technology company in the summer and management allow every employee to use the technology of the company and have your own project in the background. I thought ‘why can’t I do that for my charity?,” he said.
Initially starting out as a one-man band, Alain said he had a lot of support internally before he established his form as a proper NGO with a board of trustees and over 500 partners and contributors worldwide.

“We’re all about full transparency so that donors can see exactly where their funds are going,” he said.
“We do everything – including strategy meetings and talks with sponsors – in the clouds so there are no operational costs except for when we are organising a fundraising event. We are essentially creating a community tool for our followers and our sponsors and partners so that everyone can offer something.”

At the moment, Tuk Tuk are expanding this community three fold: developing innovative and educational projects in Kenya, Ghana, Colombia and South Africa; partnering with corporates and start-ups who want to support the charity; and establishing a strong crowd funding platform where volunteers are triggered to be entrepreneurial and creative with fundraising.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Property prices rose sharply in November, and are expected to keep increasing this year.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office show prices across the country were up 8.6pc in the year to November. The rises were strongest outside Dublin.
The rate of increase has picked up compared with the same month in 2015, and compared with the previous month.

In the capital, prices increased by 5.9pc in the year to November.

But residential property prices in the rest of the country, when Dublin is excluded, were 12.8pc higher in the year to November, the CSO said.
The west region showed the greatest price growth, with house prices up by 16.7pc.

Strong rises countrywide were due to demand, more mortgage approvals, ongoing supply shortages and the easing of the Central Bank lending rules, according to Goodbody’s Dermot O’Leary.
Economist at Davy Stockbrokers Conall Mac Coille is now predicting prices will jump by more than 10pc across the country this year.

He said the rise of 1.5pc in the month of November alone was “enormous”.
“This all comes ahead of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme and the loosening of the Central Bank mortgage lending rules – which will surely push price inflation higher still next year,” he said.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

One of the central planks of Donald Trump’s economic policy was his intention to slash the US corporate tax rate from 35pc to 15pc, which could hamper the attractiveness of Ireland’s low corporate tax regime.

David Urban, Mr Trump’s campaign director responsible for his win in the key state of Pennsylvania, says the president-elect intends to target companies in the US that decide to move away and resell products back into the US. It’s these companies that will be subject to higher taxes, he said.
However, the new US administration is considering a border tax on goods made overseas which are imported to the United States, which Mr Urban admits is “controversial”, and is another nod to Mr Trump’s consistent rhetoric against global trade agreements.

A considerable block of Mr Trump’s supporters blame the ill-winds of international trade for destruction of old industrial strongholds, in particular along the Rust Belt areas of the Midwest that have suffered economic decline as a result of changes to the industrial sectors. These changes include advancements in technology and productivity.

Mr Trump has vowed to pursue a policy that will put American multinationals under pressure to keep their operations in the US, with the threat of heavy penalties weighing over those who are seen to send American jobs abroad.

Last week, the president-elect said he’d be “the biggest jobs producer that God ever created”.
He said “a lot of industries will be coming back” to the US as a result of the policies he intends to impose that will likely vilify and force manufacturers to remain in the US or face heavy taxes.

However, Mr Urban says the overall plan and the impact it will have on the many US multinationals has not yet been worked out.
He says issues like the determination of intellectual property have yet to be decided, but assured it’s “not going to be as bad as Democrats fear or as great as Republicans hope”.

“Those are things no-one has their head around yet – they’ll be decided in the coming months,” he said.
In spite of all of his promises, Mr Trump is also likely to have considerable opposition to his protectionist policies which will appear to involve state or federal interference in the market in order to prevent companies or the markets making their own decisions and rules – something that Mr Urban admits is the antithesis of “traditional Republican” ideology.

Traditional Republicans are “more free market folks” and “you’ll see in the coming months and years a ‘tug-of-war’ in the party over ideology”, Mr Urban said.
“The president is a pragmatic populist, whose views don’t closely align with Mitt Romney or folks like that”, including House speaker and Republican Party stalwart Paul Ryan, Mr Urban said.

He [Trump] “reached back in to these companies to try and forestall jobs going overseas” – a “really ‘un-Republican’ thing to do”, he said.
“Stay tuned, it’s going to be an exciting next six months in America,” he said.

Meanwhile, Washington insider and former Bill Clinton aide and adviser Sidney Blumenthal told the Irish Independent that Mr Trump has an “extremely difficult relationship with the Republican congressional leadership”, who he says regard him with “disdain bordering on contempt”.

They will “use him to get their agenda on tax and deregulation and anything to help industry as they see it”, Mr Blumenthal, who claims he’s spoken to several congressional republicans on the matter, said.
The idea that they’re going to support protectionism across the board “is very far-fetched”, he believes.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

House buyers are to be offered renovation grants to restore properties in small towns and villages as part of the Government’s long-promised plan to revive rural Ireland.

Cash grants for refurbishing old buildings in rural communities are to form a central plank of the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development, which is being brought before the Cabinet today.
The scheme is aimed at luring all house buyers, but specifically older people and first-time buyers, back into rural communities damaged by unemployment during the recession.

Young people buying houses in designated rural towns would be given cash grants to renovate their new homes along with the tax relief available under the first-time buyer scheme.
The renovation grant would also incentivise older people living alone in isolated parts of the country to move into town centres where more services are available. The cash incentive would allow older people to refurbish houses and make them more accessible for their later years.

The Government hopes renovation grants will lure people into small towns and villages where house prices are far lower than major towns and cities.
A senior Government source said the scheme would be introduced on a pilot basis before being rolled out nationwide.

“We want people to convert centre of town buildings into modern properties,” the source said. “We also want to attract people living in extremely rural areas back into towns so they will have easy access to amenities and human company.”

The action plan was developed by Rural Affairs Minister Heather Humphreys (pictured) and Regional Economic Development Minister Michael Ring.

The plan sets out more than 250 actions aimed at winning back rural voters who turned their back on Fine Gael during the General Election.

A memo on the report said the key message is rural Ireland is a “modern, dynamic and integral part of our identity and economy”.
The action plan has five pillars aimed at “unlocking the potential” of rural communities:

• Supporting sustainable communities
• Supporting enterprise and employment
• Fostering culture and creativity
• Maximising potential for tourism and recreation
• Improving infrastructure and connectivity

Ms Humphreys’ proposal commits to creating 135,000 jobs in rural Ireland within the next three years and increasing foreign direct investment in those areas by 40pc in the same period. There is also a commitment to increase the number of tourists visiting rural parts by 12pc.
More than €50m will be invested in sports, recreation and cultural facilities, according to the action plan.

The minister also promises to improve rural job opportunities by increasing the number of apprenticeships and traineeships available locally.
There are also commitments to improve local GP services and protect rural schools.

Making communities feel safer and improving social cohesion, especially for older people living alone, are central to the plan.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Google is on track to become Dublin’s largest private industrial employer with fresh plans to add 400 new jobs in the capital.

This would bring Google’s employment in the capital to over 6,500 people with little sign of its expansion easing up.

The move comes as the web giant closes in on another new office building in Dublin’s tech-centric docklands. Sources close to Google said the company is in talks to rent the newly-constructed Velasco building, a 51,000 sq ft block close to the company’s European headquarters in the Grand Canal region of Dublin 2.

While an agreement has not yet been signed, Google is favourite to take over the property, according to the source.
A spokeswoman for Google declined to comment.

The Velasco building, which is owned by Irish Life Investment Managers, is still under construction.

At present, Google employs over 6,000 people through a combination of 3,000 permanent staff and 3,000 contractors. According to recently filed accounts, the vast majority of its staff (1,972) are in sales and marketing, with 397 in engineering and operations and 455 in administration and other activities.

Google’s revenues and profits have continued to rise in recent years, thanks to its domination of online advertising. Over half of the world’s online ad revenue is carved up between Google and Facebook, with that proportion expected to rise again this year.
In its most recent accounts, the company’s vice president and outgoing site lead in Ireland, Ronan Harris, said the continued global expansion of the company’s products, its advertiser and user base, as well as an increase in the number of Google Network Members, had contributed to the company’s overall growth in Ireland.

“Our operations in Dublin are contributing to our global success through our work with advertisers, publishers and users across EMEA,” he said.
“Dublin is recognised as a key driver of growth among our customers and we are constantly innovating to help them grow stronger and better businesses.”

Mr Harris was recently appointed as the new managing director for Google in the UK and Ireland and is relocating to London. He has been succeeded as head of site at Google’s Dublin-based office facility by Fionnuala Meehan, a vice president in Google with responsibility for marketing solutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“As Google grows, Ireland continues to benefit,” said Mr Harris. “In 2015, we opened our second data centre, bringing total investment in capital assets in Ireland to over €750m.”

Google continues to use its Irish base as a tax-efficient aggregator for international sales. Its latest accounts show that it paid €47m in tax on a profit of €294m in Ireland in 2015,
However, it booked €22.6bn in sales here during the same period. While its gross profit on this €22.6bn in sales was €17.1bn, it recorded €16.9bn as “administrative expenses” which were paid to other parts of its global organisation.

However, Google faces regulatory pressure from the EU on a number of fronts. The European Commission has charged it with anti-competitive behaviour over how it displays shopping results. Brussels has also introduced new proposals that would restrict the ability of Google to scan and track user communications without explicit consent.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Sterling slid to three-month lows in Asia on Monday with investors spooked anew by concerns over Britain’s divorce from the European Union, while US policy uncertainty lingered ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Regional share markets were hesitant. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.5pc, Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.6pc and Shanghai shed 1.4pc.
Spread betters pointed to likely opening gains for UK shares, but a drop for German equities.

All the early action was in currencies where the pound sank as low as $1.1983, depths not seen since the flash crash of October, having finished around $1.2175 in New York on Friday. It was last down 1.2pc at $1.2032.
Dealers said the market was reacting in part to a report in the Sunday Times that UK Prime Minister Theresa May will use a speech on Tuesday to signal plans for a “hard Brexit”, quitting the EU’s single market to regain control of Britain’s borders.

Investors have been worried such a decisive break from the single market would hurt British exports and drive foreign investment out of the country.
“It is impossible to say by how much a hard Brexit could weaken GBP, but we do not believe that a further 5-10pc depreciation should be regarded as an extreme scenario when set aside the UK’s high dependence on foreign capital,” wrote analysts at JPMorgan in a note.

The flight from sterling benefited the safe-haven Japanese yen, with the pound down 1.5pc to 137.34 yen while the US dollar dipped to 114.17 Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was up 0.3pc at 101.510.
The euro pared initial losses to stand at $1.0611.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Ireland ranks 12th in the world for its ability to attract, retain, train and educate skilled workers, according to a new survey ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Ireland features ahead of Germany, Canada and France, but falls behind the UK, the US, and most of the Nordic countries, according to the Adecco group’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI).
The presence of large tech companies with a global reach such as Apple, Facebook and LinkedIn in basing their European headquarters here led to Dublin being ranked 10th out of 46 capital cities for global talent competitiveness, ahead of cities including London, New York and Berlin.

The report says Ireland’s status as a European tech hub bodes well for its ability to reap the benefits of technology.
However, the report, carried out by HR firm Adecco, business school INSEAD and the Human Capital Leadership Institute, warns that while Ireland is a magnet for foreign talent, it lags behind in formal education and in “preventing the brain drain of its own top workers”.

“This year’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index demonstrates Ireland’s success in building a robust talent infrastructure, capable of both attracting and retaining highly skilled talent from across the world,” said John L Marshall, CEO of Adecco Group UK & Ireland.
“This is greatly facilitated by Ireland’s phenomenal success in positioning itself as a European tech hub and securing a steady stream of foreign direct investment. The first ever global ranking of cities shows that Dublin, ranked 10th ahead of London and New York, has the potential to further boost Ireland’s attractiveness to highly skilled workers.

Equipped
“That said, the report also demonstrates the need to continue to invest in home-grown talent, to ensure the next generation of Irish professionals are equipped to compete in the global marketplace and face challenges of the future.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Finance Minister Michael Noonan are leading the Irish delegation to Davos this year where the IDA is hosting a series of bilateral meetings with investors.
The world leaders meet as the World Economic Forum has warned rising income inequality and the polarisation of societies pose a risk to the global economy and could result in the rolling back of globalisation.

In a report launched today, Oxfam says eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorer half of the world’s population.
“A fundamental change in the way we manage our economies is required so they benefit everyone, not just a fortunate few,” said Oxfam Ireland chief Jim Clarken. “We need a global economy for the 99pc not just the 1pc.”

The most talked about Davos guest is Chinese President Xi Jinping who is attending for the first time.
Mr Jinping will lead an 80-strong delegation of business executives and billionaires to the annual gathering where he is expected to speak out against the protectionist policies espoused by Donald Trump, president-elect of the United States.

Many world leaders are not attending this year’s forum. French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have all cancelled.

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42