Re: ML Suspicions
Hi everyone
Rainyday, I see the logic in your point but the way I see it the banks are, like Bart Simpson, "damned if they do and damned if they don't" on this issue.
IMHO, the risk of defaming a customer is a bigger problem for any bank official than any potential public odium arising from their failure to interrogate Jo Bloggs as to where their extra £50 a month income is coming from.
One way out of it for the banks is to insist (as they regularly do) on a declaration that the borrower's tax affairs are in order. This mighn't on the surface be too much of a deterrent to anyone who is intent on fiddling the system but it tidily shifts the onus of responsibility back on to the borrower, with important consequences if things go haywire later on.
Personally I think that the extent and seriousness of this particular "problem" is highly exaggerated. From what I know, a far bigger problem is that of mortgage borrowers "declaring" non-existent cash income in order to bolster up their borrowing capacity. They don't pay any tax on this income because they don't earn the money in the first place. Let's face it, if someone works 35 hours a week in a regular 9-5 job and spends 2 hours per day travelling to work, when are they going to get the time (or energy) to work on a nixer that will earn them more than a pittance every week?
Okay, we all know of unregistered childminders, mechanics who will service cars at night, teachers who give grinds, tradesmen who look for cash for repair jobs, etc, etc but these people tend, to my knowledge, to be older people in relatively cushy positions in their "daytime" occupations - a far cry indeed from the typical hard-pressed first-time buyer who struggles to buy a home in some far-flung suburban outpost like Gorey, Kells or Rochfordbridge, or who is forced to gamble on taking out a ridiculous mortgage to buy a house convenient to their needs.
Personally, it doesn't matter a damn to me if my neighbour tells the bank that he earns £20 or £120 per week on the side (unless he's my client, of course!). If he's evading tax, of course it's illegal and immoral on his part, but in a liberal society it is his responsibility to pay his taxes like the rest of us, and I won't shed any tears if he's caught by the taxman. But, on the other hand, I certainly won't lose any sleep at night worrying why is he getting away with it. Ditto if (s)he is sleeping around every night of the week.
I would love to debate the merits or otherwise of political correctness but sadly there aren't enough hours in the week. My point about political correctness is based on my own perception that these days people in Ireland seem to spend all the time whinging indignantly (and hypocritically) about the failings and wrongdoings of others while being totally blind to their own shortcomings.
3 quick examples - all unrelated and of varying importance - which show the depth of the problem:
- our appalling treatment of asylum seekers, refugees, and people who come here from poorer lands just to make a few bob, in the light of our rush to pass judgement on unionist and loyalist figures who suppress the rights of northern nationalists and on the Bush administration in the US "war against terrorism.
- Govt. ministers going crazy at the profanity of an opponent who speaks of "bastards" but doing nothing to curb the Dail privileges of the disgraced Liam Lawlor.
- officials in An Taisce who chastise country people for choosing to live in their own rural community and for driving their cars everywhere, yet who themselves admit in newspaper interviews to regularly driving their own offspring to school in rush-hour traffic.
Tearing our hair out about how the banks "facilitate" the black economy, which, lets face it, we all gladly use from time to time, is another example of the "holier than thou" attitude which is making Ireland a very unpleasant place to live in.
Live and let live, for once, for God's sake..............
