The current government – whoever is in charge – always takes the stick for implementing anything people don’t agree with.
The Household Charge – and the impending Property Tax are fairly unpopular – but whilst the current government introduced them – whose idea was it?
The suggestion of a property based tax being re-introduced in Ireland was mentioned as far back in December 2010 in the Four Year Plan published by the Fianna Fail government. See more about that here.
The IMF/EU seem to get the blame most of the time though – all the government leaflets and speeches keep saying that the Household Charge has been introduced on foot of the “EU/IMF Agreement”.
The IMF are known to promote the use of property taxes – in a 2012 report titled – Revenue and Expenditure Policies – Advanced and Emerging Economies
they said that “Property taxes are a promising source of increased revenue for some countries, but there are practical obstacles. They currently yield around 3 percent of GDP in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but well below 1 percent in other G-20 countries. Efficiency and fairness argue strongly for firm use of property taxes: they are relatively benign for growth; raise few issues of international coordination; and, while their incidence is still not fully understood they seem to be borne mainly by the well-off. Obstacles to their wider use include administrative complexities and costs (including the development of efficient cadastre and valuation mechanisms), and the unpopularity that their transparency can bring “