Re: Inequity in the tax system
As the person who asked the question in the Tax forum... and the person who is exempt I too find it odd that I may get tax relief on a mortgage. I can also understand why people find it frustrating that certain groups are exempt, but consider this.
Most artists/writers have a limited career span. Therefore they can earn a lot of money in a relatively short period of time... Living in the UK as I do at the moment I end up after fees are paid to my agent, pension fund, writers guild, Vat and Tax man with about 33pence in every pound I earn. Please don't feel sorry for me yet
But where the system is intransigent is when you have a good year followed by a bad year... as often will happen. Suddenly you are in a position where you may lose your house, car and credit rating. That's why I'm moving back to Ireland. To get rid of the cycle of doing well followed by virtual bankruptcy.
The benefits of this as far as the Irish public are concerned are increased property prices [of course this is also a draw back] and a culture influx. It's put places like Dalkey on the map. [I can't afford Dublin BTW, moving to Mayo] The other bonus is of course that local business thrive because the well healed popstar, film maker, artist spends his Euros on their services.
At the end of the day if the exemption didn't exist many of these now affluent communities would not exist... It doesn't make it any fairer but I guess it does make sense.