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BUDGET DAY IS done and dusted for another year.
The changes announced yesterday included tweaks to the USC and tax bands, tax reliefs for landlords, social welfare hikes and an increase in the minimum wage.
Here are the new measures that have already kicked in or been extended – and what to expect in the months to come.
The price of cigarettes has already increased by 75 cents – that’s 25 cent higher than the increase many have become accustomed to over the last seven budgets.
The average price of a packet of cigarettes is now €16.75. There will also be a pro-rata increase on other tobacco products.
Minister Michael McGrath said the increase was aimed at further “reducing smoking levels in our society” and in line with public health measures.
Additionally, vaping products will receive a domestic tax, not in this budget, but in the next one. Government sources had indicated the tax would not be rolled out immediately as new legislation would be needed.
Currently, VAT is charged on vaping products but they do not have excise duty levied on them like normal cigarettes.
As of today, prospective homeowners can avail of both the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme and the Help-to-Buy scheme in the same application, after amendments were made last night. Previously, an application to only one of the two schemes was allowed.
The help-to-buy (HTB) scheme has been extended to 31 December 2025.
The Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme provides a de-facto loan to buyers, by purchasing a 20% stake in the property and offsetting the cost to the homeowner – who must pay it back after 40 years.
The HTB Scheme gives a refund of the income tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) you have paid in Ireland for the four years before the year you apply.
The amendment will mean buyers will be able to avail of a 20% discount on the price of the property as well as the the tax refund.
The 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity has been extended for another 12 months.
This is the second extension of the scheme, which was brought in as a cost-0f-living measure in April 2022. It was due to return to its previous rate, of 13.5%, at the end of this month.
Minister for Finance Michael McGrath said: “It is estimated that consumers will save an additional €90 for electricity and those who use gas will save an additional €62 during the 12-month extension.”
Similarly, The Journal reported last month on concerns regarding the planned excise duty increase on petrol and diesel, that was due to take place on 31 October.
Yesterday, McGrath said he was “conscious that the price of petrol and diesel for motorists have increased in recent weeks, driven by volatility in international oil prices”.
The finance minister confirmed that these increases will not take place this month, however, will be split into “two equal installments” on 1 April and 2 August 2024.
However, the cost of petrol and diesel has still risen this morning following new duties under the Carbon Tax.
The tax increased the cost of both fuels rise from €48.50 per tonne to €56 per tonne, which works out to 2.5 cents more on the cost of diesel and 2.1 cents more on the cost of petrol.
A number of one-off bonuses, social-welfare payments, and tax increases were announced which will be enacted later in the year.
The first of which, is an increase to the Vacant Homes Tax to “five times the property’s existing basic Local Property Tax rate” next month.
In social welfare, a €2.3 billion support package was announced by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe which included a number energy, fuel and increased welfare payments.
Three credits worth €150 each to assist with energy bills will be provided, the first of which will be given to billpayers at the end of this year, with another to follow in April 2024.
A lump sum payment of €300 will be made to those on the Fuel Allowance in the last quarter of this year. Those in receipt of the Living Alone Allowance will receive an additional €200 this year.
Regular Social Protection recipients will receive the Christmas Bonus in early December, followed by a once-off double payment for those in receipt of any social welfare payments in January.
Donohoe announced a “special” once-off payment of €400 will be made before Christmas to those who receive the Carer’s Support Grant, Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension and Domiciliary Care Allowance.
A €12 weekly increase to all social welfare payments, across-the-board, will come in place next year. However, disability groups have heavily criticised this as the current allowance rate will still be below the poverty threshold.
Inclusion Ireland CEO Derval McDonagh labelled the payment as “tokenism” and said that it was a “disturbing blow to human rights”. She added this year’s budget had “abandoned disabled people living well below the poverty line”.
A double payment of Child Payment – worth an additional €140 for each child – will be made to all qualifying households before Christmas. A double payment of the Foster Care allowance will also be made this year.
A €400 lump sum payment will be made to recipients of the Working Family Payment later this year, the public expenditure minister announced.
Further into next year, the National Childcare Scheme subsidy is increasing from €1.40 per hour to €2.14 per hour from next September.
The CEO of Early Childcare Ireland Teresa Heaney that parents will be “disappointed” not to see further decreases in the cost of childcare until late next year.
Finally, as part of a suite of measures that also include an increase in the rent tax credit to €750, parents of students can claim €500 tax relief credits on the rent paid for rent-a-room or ‘digs’ style accommodation from the years 2022 and 2023.
The Revenue Commission told The Journal that parents can claim these credits at the start of next year, after the relevant systems have been developed.
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No excise duty restoration on petrol and diesel but we’ll go ahead with the carbon tax increase which in effect will mean prices will not just go up by 2c a litre but will increase by another 4 or 5c….you just couldn’t make this stuff up… Easy to know these boys aren’t paying for petrol or diesel as they are being driven around in their big fancy Audis at taxpayers expense…..absolute cowboys, the lot of them
@: like TD Niall Collins you mean? He claimed 2,917 kilometres in ministerial mileage expenses for August 2021 when the Dáil was on its summer break. His diary suggests he covered just 170 kilometres that month for ministerial work. In 2021, Collins claimed tax-free ministerial mileage expenses of €17,740.98 for 52,764 kilometres of driving. Nice little earner.
@: Absolutely, I have long argued that it should either be completely removed. More realistically it should be completely adjusted, if you have a driver/car then you get no allowance. Then it should be based on price of fuel and tax payer only foots fuel price up to a cap of say 1.20€ LT anything above you pay. Then if you drive anything above 1.6LT engine or anything with a massive CO2 output the claim is only paid by 25%.
Either of them introduced and I bet you will see a change in tune on levies on it. It makes no sense that the people implementing the rules are completely and utterly bypassing the same.
@Tomasso San Roque: Niall Collins refused to appear before ethics Committee to explain this discrepancy. Like the NAMA scandal two weeks ago and the silence concerning the report of the missing millions in Templemore and the missing laptops and mobile phones of two ex garda commissioners…The brush and the carpet is alive and well.
@: I love when people say “you just couldn’t make this stuff up”!
You can!
That’s literally how imagination works!
So the usual government bolloxology, when it comes to increasing the price of anything which benefits the Exchequer, it can be done overnight with the stroke of a pen.
Yet when it comes to giving the scraps from the rich man’s to the less well off, it takes months, sounds about right.
‘table’
@Andy Felthersnatch: It is like fuel prices, if an Arab farts at a crossroad the fuel goes up over night but if the price reduces it takes weeks to come back down.
Oh, we”ve been deemed worthy of commenting on this news item. How gracious of our overlords.
@Squarepeg 01: It’s in the latest budget measures announced yesterday. Comment Allowances on Journal Topics are set to increase by Ten per cent per annum.
@Squarepeg 01: “overlords”?….Who is forcing you to read The journal?
@Simon Sterne: clearly I’m using ‘overlord’ sarcastically. They think they’re morally superior and that they get to decide how we should think about the issues of the day. Any other opinion is to be silenced.
ESB , Making Fifteen, thousand, million, in profit,. Prices 85% higher than the European average .Where is the energy regulator.
@Brendan Godley: getting the brown envelopes
They simply haven’t a clue!!! This budget will change nothing for anyone.
The system is broken.
Billions in surpluses
Those that need help are still screwed
Those that work and pay taxes are still screwed.
What a joke. This budget was talked up so much.
They should have stayed at hoe
Wasting everyone’s time and energy
@Max Cooper: No,it’s actually people like you that simply don’t have a clue.It’s either just the usual ‘I hate this government’ or you don’t understand how budgets/inflation and trying to balance the books and keep everyone relatively happy.I’d say it’s a mixture of both to be honest.
@uUleRhCu: The problem with this budget is the timing of the crumbs we got. Cigs go up today petrol and diesel go up today and what ever knock on to that is. All happen now. The crumbs from the table only arrive in the new year. Child care not till Sept. Why is that. Sociel welfare not till Jan, why. Giving lump sums are great when u get them. But when there gone, your back to where you where. Surely these could have been teased out over longer. So really giving a little in one hand and taking back more in the other. That’s the budget. Not even mentioning child poverty. All all the hype on how it was going to be fixed.
@John Flanagan: ‘Giving with one hand and taking back with the other’……THATS HOW BUDGETS WORK!…..another guy who simply doesn’t understand how things work.
@uUleRhCu: explain it to everyone so because it does seem to me that whatever needs to go up does so overnight but whatever crumbs we may get are months away so there is actually more hardship for people before things may improve
@uUleRhCu: and that’s ok with you? Grow a back bone will you!
Increase of SW payments is good move. Should make Child benefit a means tested payment because even billioners getting it.
@Sergej Simonov: No it shouldn’t be means tested…so what if a couple of billionaires get it,The cost alone of means testing is huge and would cost more than the ‘rich’ getting it……And it would mean that anyone on a half decent wage who pays for EVERYTHING and get no allowances wouldn’t get it…….and if you want to go down the means testing route,let’s means test people’s ability to work and send them out to work(companies are crying out for workers)
@uUleRhCu: of course John follow the usual pro.gov.line ,blame the unemployed ,underprivledged,homless.etc.And ignore the criminal disregard for the weaker and underpriveledge,whch is the hallmark of successive ff/fg.Governments
@Thomas Devlin: apart from moaning on here, what do you actually do about it?
The Government couldn’t bothered.
The smugness, the cold hearted treatment of the people rings thru in this budget.
Not nearly enough done to ease the cost of living crisis and there’s nothing in this budget that addresses the diabolical housing situation.
I don’t think they even worked too hard on the soundbites.
Usc/bankers debt charge should be gone at this stage there’s 1 thing they could hsve done to give the impression they care.
@Niall Murphy: this government is anti Irish. Fact is, the homeless figures were hovering around 10000 for years. They were left in emergency accommodation for years, in hotels at huge taxpayer expense. Suddenly the opportunity to import hundreds of thousands to prop up the pyramid arose, no stone was left unturned to find houses and voila, tens of thousands of people got homes including brand new modular homes. Four billion set aside in the budget to accommodate migrants dwarfs the pittance tenner a week being returned to Irish taxpayers who pay for it all. Lest not forget the €6500 pa pay rise the TDs gave themselves last August.
@Tomasso San Roque: are you going to enter politics and attempt to change the situation you’re unhappy about or just bitch and moan?
As the quote goes…”are you going to bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite?”
@Simon Sterne: I’ll keep barking until it’s time to bite. My time to bite will be when the GE is called and gimps like yourself are sent out by your handlers door to door. I’ll be awaiting your knock.
I’m working, single, no kids. According to PWC calculator all I get is an extra €17 a week. Plus the energy credits. Very disappointing to say the least.
@Noel Linnane: de price of 20 fags
Not a word about the homeless.
I’m noticing comments closed re non priority of health in the budget. How can health not take priority. It’s a shambles. Waiting lists, trolleys, children and adults years waiting for appointments. And more. It’s not a priority. I don’t believe any government source could say that. Shocking. No wonder comments closed.
Our indigenous ethnic group got some respite with increased welfare and our newest ethnic group also got the same. So all in all a great budget
Excise duty on vaping is very odd. Presume that this new excise duty will also be applied to other quit smoking nicotine replacement products such as patches and gums? Surely they should be reducing the VAT on vaping while increasing tax on cigarettes to encourage smokers to quit?
@Niall English: I dunno about that. To me, vaping is as bad as smoking. Remember, the original name for vapes was ” electronic cigarettes,” and they definitely can not be classed as an NRT product. How many people are now vaping that never actually touched a cigarette. Also, if you think that nice fruity taste that is used to cover the foul taste of nicotine is from natural origins, well, I’m sorry to disappoint you.
NRTs such as patches and gums are planned for short-term use only, and they help you wean yourself from the nicotine addiction, whereas vapes are not meant to be. They are meant as a direct replacement of cigarettes but never meant to be weaned from.
What’s the story with the staff. Everyone is the same type. No diversity of reporting or opinion.
Drones
Not once did I hear the words old age pencioners mentioned yesterday, I’m a 67 yr old living alone, who has worked since I was 14 yrs old, yes we will get all of the grants announced yesterday, so will a youngster who is never worked a day in there life yet.
A 12e PW rise amounts to about 1.71 a day enough to buy me a loaf of bread,
There is no more I can say about this.
@James Kennedy: Agreed. Older people ignored as usual. Your Inheritance Tax Liability is much higher now than 5 ago
Do they properly tax vacant sites? (Sites with planning permission but not building)?
I quit smoking 11 years ago thanks to ecigs. Vaping has saved countless lives throughout the world. It’s safer than traditional smoking by orders of magnitude yet they intend to tax it for spurious & fallacious reasons namely to “protect children” & they are creating an “environmental issue”. The government are morally bankrupt imo
When does the USC reduction and new tax bands apply ?
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