The creation of NAMA was first announced in the April 2009 Irish Budget.
What is this NAMA and what will it do?
The Government line is that NAMA is firstly an asset management company dealing with assets tansferred from banks. NAMA will not be a bank as it will not be taking deposits from the public and will not have a banking licence. NAMA will have loans on its books based on real physical assets, and while some of these will undoubtedly be of better quality than others, they will be a mix of ‘good or performing loans’ and ‘bad or non performing loans’.

The idea is that the NAMA will buy all of the land and property development loans of the six Irish banks of covered by the State guarantee. This means the total potential  value of the loans which will be taken on by NAMA  will be between €80 billion and €90 billion.By taking problem property loans off the hands of the banks, the Government hopes to put those institutions in a position where they can resume lending.
NAMA will probably become the biggest landowner in Ireland. Developers might not yet realise it – but every single land and investment property they own which has outstanding debt could end up in the new National Asset Management Agency

Even if these debts are bought by Nama at two-thirds of their face value – the bill could  be in the region of  €60 billion. ( Ireland’s national debt is currently €54 billion)
It could be 12 to 18 months before NAMA gets going properly. It may need to exist for another 10 to 15 years  – it is  no short-term fix.
Where will the employees will come from, what big shiny office will NAMA  rent?

Is this just a bail out for the developers that the taxpayer and bank shareholders will end up funding? Or is it a viable option that will help get the financial mess sorted. Only time will tell…. if we are all still living here by then and haven’t emigrated!

How To Get a Job in NAMA

First NAMA Transfers Announced

Eircom have a special offer – available online until  May 22nd 2009. If you order a  telephone connection with Eircom for your home or business before May 22nd 2009 – it will not cost you anything. Some ne line connections can cost almost €122 Euro – so if you are planning to get a landline connected visit the Eircom Website and get it for free.

The new Income levy rates from May 1st 2009 are as follows: (As per April Budget)

• 2% on income up to €75,036
• 4% on income from €75,037 to €174,980
• 6% on income above €174,980

If your income is  180000 – you do not pay 6% on all your income – you will pay 6% on the portion over €174980 , 2% on the first €75036,  and 4% on the next  €99943.

If your income is greater than the minimum threshold of €15,028 per year or €289 per week, you pay the levy on the full amount of your income.
(If you are aged 65 or over the minimum threshold is €20,000 per year for a single person and €40,000 per year for a couple).

If you are a PAYE worker – your employer will calculate the income levy at each payslip – on a week by week or month by month basis. If your income varies from week to week you could pay the income levy in certain weeks/months  even if your total annual income is under the threshold. In this kind of situation your employer should make an adjustment at the end of the year and refund all income levy deducted from your wages.

If you have not worked with the same employer continuously throughout the year Revenue will deal with any refund of income levy due at the end of the year.

Example 2

From 1 May 2009 the income levy is calculated on a weekly threshold of 2% for income up to €1443,  4% on income from €1443 to €4810, and 6% on anything over €4810.
If you get a payment for one week in excess of €3,365 you will pay the income levy at the 3% on the balance.

If your yearly income means you are liable at a lower rate, you will have overpaid the income levy. In this situation your employer should make an adjustment at the end of the year (week 52) and make the appropriate refund. If you have not worked with the same employer continuously throughout the year Revenue will deal with any refund of income levy due at the end of the year.

Bank of Ireland has dropped the rates on its mortgages for new and existing customers. This fall is passing on the ECB cut announced on April 2nd. The standard variable rates for new customers vary depending on the LTV – but they appear to have dropped by  0.35% according to the figures shown on the BOI website.
See all the latest mortgage rates here .

The Health Levy in Ireland is really just another name for income tax that is deducted from earnings. It is supposed to be used by Department of Health and Children to fund health services in Ireland.  The recent April 2009 mini Budget doubled the rate of this Levy. (So will we see a massive improvement in Health Services? – or are we all just being fooled ?)

The following people do not pay the health levy:

• People earning less than €500 gross per week
• People who have a medical card
• People getting One-Parent Family Payment, Deserted Wife’s Benefit/Allowance, the Widow’s/Widower’s Contributory Pension and the Widow’s/Widower’s Non-Contributory Pension.

If you have paid the health levy and think you should not have, you should contact your local tax office to find out how to get this money back.

The health levy was previously paid at the rate of 2% on all earnings up to €100,100 and 2.5% on earnings over €100,100.

From 1 May 2009, the health levy will be paid at the rate of:

• 4% on all earnings up to €75,036
• 5% on earnings over €75,036.

So someone earning 40k a year would have paid  800 euro a year – will now pay 1600 euro a year (133 euro a month) . People paying private health insurance as well must be thinking why are they paying twice.

Air Travel Tax (ATT)  is a new excise duty on air travel and it is being  charged  in respect of every departure of a passenger on an aircraft from an Irish airport since  30th March 2009.

The charges are:

• €2  where the flight is to a destination located not more than 300 kilometres from Dublin Airport
• €10 on  flights to any other destination.

Exemptions

ATT does not apply where an aircraft is not capable of carrying twenty or more passengers.

Departures from an airport from which the number of departures of passengers in the previous calendar year was less than 10,000 are not subject to the tax.  So ATT will not apply, therefore, to departures from Donegal Airport, Carrickfinn, Co. Donegal, or from Sligo Airport, Strandhill, Co. Sligo.

The following people are exempt from ATT

• The crew of the aircraft (including any relief crew).
• A disabled person who has requested and availed of assistance from the airline operator in accordance with EU Council Regulation 1107/2006, and one person travelling with the disabled person for the purposes of providing care and assistance to the disabled person.
• A person under the age of two who does not occupy a seat on the aircraft.
• Transit and transfer passengers.

If you are over 55 you can get a will drawn up for free if you make an appointment with selected solicitors during the month of April 2009. The fees are covered by certain charities :- Those people  taking up the offer are under no obligation to leave a gift to one of the  charities, – but that is something they hope you will consider.
20 Solicitors in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Wexford are involved. Find a Solicitor Here

The annual rate of Irish inflation in March 2009 fell 2.6 per cent. This is according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.

Prices showed no change between February and March 2009 compared to an increase of 0.9 per cent in March 2008.

This brought the annual rate of inflation to minus  -2.6 per cent compared with  minus -1.7 per cent in February. The rate of consumer price inflation in Ireland  first turned negative in January 2009 .

In his Budget speech on Tuesday  Brian Lenihan said the Government was expecting inflation to average at  minus 4 per cent this year.