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High earners with pension pots that are close to breaching a €2 million threshold that trigger a punitive tax regime should not rush to avoid hitting that cap just yet, top accountancy firm and consultants PwC have advised, reports Dominic Coyle. The cap on pension savings subject to tax relief was introduced in 2005, originally at €5 million. That was cut after the financial crash to €2.3 million in 2010 and then to €2 million in 2014 with the threshold sitting unchanged since then.
More than 40 per cent of Irish workers are failing to make use of their full holiday entitlements, while nearly a fifth did not use five days of their annual leave last year, according to recruitment agency FRS Recruitment. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.
Women, find it hard to say no to thankless task. Female employees are statistically more likely than men to be asked to take on mentoring, training and other time-eating “non-promotable tasks”, writes columnist Pilita Clark. They are also more likely to do them, according to four different female academics who wrote a 2022 book about the problem. It is time to start saying no.
Ryanair has warned that the cap on Dublin Airport passengers will lead to “record high air fares”. The airline’s chief Michael O’Leary claimed the State’s restriction on Dublin passenger numbers could see air fares to Dublin this Christmas reach €500 one way as “reduced seat capacity fills”. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports
There is overwhelming public support for the planned introduction of a mandatory workplace pension scheme, but it could still face initial pushback, a new survey has found. More than four in five adults support the proposal to auto-enrol workers aged between 23 and 60 and earning more than €20,000 into an occupational pension plan if they are not already in one, according to the survey by life insurer and pensions specialist Royal London Ireland. Dominic Coyle reports.
What’s happening with Ireland’s housing crisis and where do we go next?
Some €1.4 billion of tax cuts have been flagged for Budget 2025. This will be inflationary and procyclical in the current strong economic climate and frankly makes little economic sense, argues Owen Reidy, general secretary of Ictu in our Opinion slot. Of course, tax cuts are also diametrically opposed to the core recommendation of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare. The Commission argued that Government revenues will have to meaningfully rise as a share of national output in the years to come.
Since the European Central Bank began a cycle of 10 interest rate hikes in July 2022, Irish property values have surged by 10 per cent. In the Dublin, prices are up by an average of 7.5 per cent, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy in his column. Why is this happening?
Dominic Coyle answers a personal finance question from a reader: I was involved in caring for a relative who died intestate. Under the rules of intestacy, I’m not entitled to any of her estate. However, a relative of mine who will receive an inheritance has very kindly said that they wish to gift an amount of about €20,000 to me to recognise my help. My question is whether I could use the €3,000 annual gift exemption to reduce the overall amount that would be assessed against the Group C threshold (as in, treat it as a €3,000 gift and a €17,000 gift, meaning that €750 would be subject to tax rather than €3,750)? I would guess not, but wanted to see if this was possible.
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