It's funny how much more attention that you pay to these things as you get older. When I was 25 I wouldn't even had known that the yearly budget was happening. Now I could see it coming from days out.
Watching news and paying attention to old people stuff.
It will happen to you too at some stage. I even find it interesting now. Must be getting old.
Even better is that since the country is doing well at the moment we are gaining some money back for a change. Not that it will match inflation but better than getting a kick up the arse like the past few years.
Being in the middle is a shit place to be. If your rich you avoid a lot of the taxes. If your poor then you get a lot of freebies. But if you happen to work hard and earn a reasonable wage then beware. They will fuck you to pay for the other two brackets.
This time wasn't too bad though. We got a bit back in taxes and some energy credits to make up for the crazy power prices. They even went down a little this year too.
Other than that it didn't hit me too much.
All images sent from Irishtaxrebates.
The biggest downsides are the hike in cigarette prices, ( €18 a pack now) and the governments continued push on carbon taxes. These are all well and good but until we have any decent alternatives then it is just a money grab. The cost of Diesel is getting severe and i can see it draining out of the car when i drive to work.
Any higher and it won't be worth travelling to work anymore. Just stay at home and take all the freebies.
I will give the government some credit though. The have actually done something useful for once and planned for the future.
They have set up a future proofing fund that will be paid into every year from the budget. Build a bankroll and put it earning a return.
In time this will generate returns which can be used to fund projects when the economy has a downturn without affecting the capitol and not having to cut funding during tougher times.
At the moment we have a lot of money coming in from large multinationals but if that changes we will need a safety net. Something that i have said for years but they have actually done for once.
