No warning over second home tax

Madam, – I am an Irish citizen who has lived and worked in the UK for more than 30 years

Madam, – I am an Irish citizen who has lived and worked in the UK for more than 30 years. I am now retired on a British pension. I own a holiday home in my native county which I bought from my mother. Recently, by word of mouth in Glasgow, I discovered that the Irish Government had introduced a tax on second homes. Having established that I am liable for this tax, I sent a cheque for €400 in payment for 2009 and 2010 to the county council.

I was astonished to have the cheque returned to me and to be told that I owed a further €380 because of late payment of a tax about which I knew nothing and for which I had received no demand.

How was I supposed know about this tax? Had I known, I would have paid immediately. It seems that the longer the uninformed non-resident is ignorant, the more money can be extracted in a deeply unjust and cynical exercise on the part of the Government.

It is unbelievable that I, as a pensioner who would have been quite happy to pay the tax if notified, should be threatened with criminal proceedings at a time when one reads daily of the enormous amounts of money owed by property developers and bankers, who appear to be immune from prosecution.

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To what depths has my country sunk? – Yours, etc,

ELEANOR S WALSH,

Ledcameroch Crescent,

Glasgow,

Scotland.