Sir, – Wednesday’s main story in your paper featured, by way of example, the case of a reader who believed not too long ago that their home was worth up to €350,000, but when it came to sale time managed to secure an offer of upwards of €500,000. This led to an outstanding tax liability of €540 due to underpaid property tax. So, the party concerned had an unexpected capital gain of at least €150,000 and an unexpected tax liability of less than 0.4 per cent. And this makes the front page? – Yours, etc,
GER HENNESSY,
Cartrontroy,
Athlone,
Co Westmeath
Sir, – I was astounded to see in a front page story that a homeowner who had sold a house for at least €150,000 more than it was worth a year ago contacted The Irish Times because they were being asked for an additional €540 in property tax to cover this increase.
I think we may be in danger of letting our innate dislike of taxes obscure our perspective here. – Yours, etc,
RONAN GEARY,
Baldoyle,
Dublin 13