A few more details of likely 2010 Budget changes have started to sneak out – but the full scale of the expected €4 billion worth of cuts in spending and increases in taxation will not be known until December 9th 2009.
In the past week the following ideas have been mentioned :
The introduction of Prescription Charges of 0.50c for Medical Card holders.
Means testing of Child Benefit payments.
Lowering of taxation thresholds to bring more people into the Income Tax “net”.
Introduction of a site valuation tax.
Budget day on December 9th will probably bring bad financial news for many people in Ireland. After Thierry Henry’s handball – the mood of many Irish people is bad enough and we don’t expect the Budget to help make it any better.