Commission on Taxation - Best Excuse Ever?

So the much-vaunted Commission on Taxation is due to report any day - notice how the date is left vague, just like the An Bord Snip Nua report? I guess they want to tease us a little bit longer about the taxes that are going to descend on us like the seven plagues of Egypt.

But that is just the point. We at Irish Taxpayer (through our excellent contacts in the Green Party) happen to know for a fact that the Commission's report is considered by the Cabinet to be the real show in town. Colm McCarthy's report isn't even at the races as far as they are concerned.

Now, this may come as somewhat of a surprise to all you honest souls out there who were under the impression that Mr. McCarthy and his friends had gone to all that trouble in order to shave a few billion off the massive €20 billion deficit we are running this year, but you don't know the mindset that drives this government and, indeed, the opposition parties as well.

As far as they are concerned, the commitments made to the unions in the 'social partnership' process are non-negotiable: meaning they don't want industrial armageddon to break out in the public sector at the prospect of cuts and lay-offs.

This can only mean making up the massive shortfall by hiking up taxes across the board, despite all protestations to the contrary. Which is why the Commission's report, which was supposed to be about "modernising", "streamlining", "updating" the tax system, will instead be all about clever new ways of ripping-off the taxpayer again.

This, of course, is close to madness during the worst recession for 70 years. Brian Lenihan has already admitted that his rise in VAT last October was a total disaster and completely counter-productive. You only have to walk down any high street to see the evidence of that, with empty store fronts everywhere. However, the political/civil service elite are nothing if not slow learners, and all the smoke signals point to another smash and grab raid on your wallets to fill the yawning gap in revenue that their incompetence caused in the first place.

After his April budget (shoring up the damage from the last one) Brian Lenihan returned from receiving instructions from his bosses in Brussels to gleefully report their amazement at how much punishment the Irish people were absorbing without a murmur. If so much tax had been imposed in France, he was reportedly told, "there would have been rioting in the streets".

Mr Lenihan, and his invisible master, Mr Cowen, should be wary of taking the taxpayer's patience for granted. Nobody wants to see rioting on the streets, á la France, but they should remember that the only area where consent is not allowed to the people is in the taxation of their income. If you resist being relieved of your legally earned money, you will eventually find yourself in jail. This is the reason we have every right to expect a wise and prudent use of our taxable income by our elected representatives and their servants.

Our leaders must remember, we were not put on this earth to be their personal ATM machines. That also applies to all those who are still enjoying lavish salaries at our expense. The Irish taxpayer is no longer the only interest group in Ireland that has no voice. We will see to that.