Ireland’s automatic stabilizers impact on the recovery from COVID

After the 2008 global financial crisis, Ireland’s tax and welfare system aimed to reduce income inequality within its citizens and succeeded in doing so. A research was done by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found that the automatic stabilizers implemented created a reduction in tax and an increase in welfare payments from the State. This all led to an offset in the rise of income equality.

These automatic stabilizers, which are usually considered a country’s economy’s first line of defence in a financial crisis, reduced inequality at more than just the governmental policies level. Even during the COVID pandemic, many governments have gone a step further with the implementation of the automatic stabilizers by using them as a buffer against the financial shock, and in doing so have introduced a system of direct wage supports to combat the fallen employment rate experience globally.

Recent studies have looked further into the impacts of the tax and benefit policy on income equality in five of the euro zones that were hit the worst economically in the COVID pandemic. These zones …

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Tax Relief methods that you may be looking for

Taxes have and always will be the stress of most people’s adult life. And there are two sides of the same coin in terms of feelings you may receive when getting your Revenue yearly about your taxes. And last weeks, there are many people who are either ecstatic and relieved and then there are others who are scrambling around to find some way in order to lessen their tax liability.

Either way, you have most likely in one way or another been affected by the wage subsidies that the pandemic has caused. But there are still some things you can do to lessen that tax bill just a little. Of the following hints, if you have not claimed any of them since 2017, you can still be eligible for that period of time.

1: Tuition Fees

With children in third-level education, tuition can cost a fortune. But you can also benefit from tax relief on fees paid for undergraduate programs, postgraduate, IT, and foreign language courses. The relief starts at 20%, meaning that 20% will be returned to your pockets.

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Financial steps you can take in quarantine

As quarantine drags on into 2021, and there is no certainty when restrictions will start to lift as the COVID vaccines roll out, there are still many actions you can take just to less your bills and spending a little. With how volatile the market and economy is currently, as countries scramble to create and distribute the vaccine. You can create just a little bit of order in your everyday lives by seeing if any of these tips will help your financial situation.

1: Check up on your insurances

If you are one of nearly two million citizens in Ireland that are about to enter your renewal period for your private health insurance, this tip is just for you. Of that two million people, around 75% just allow their policies to be renewed without looking over the fine print or asking their provider any questions. And if you have been doing exactly that for over the last three years, you can almost certainly save some money by looking at alternative options currently. It will require a bit of research and …

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Ways to potentially reduce your tax bill

If you are one of the 706,000 individuals who are due a refund, as announced from the Revenue last week about your taxes, you probably went out and bought yourself a nice glass of wine. But if you’re in the other boat with the 633,000 other people who received the bad news, you’re probably hoping for a miracle to wipe away the tax liability that you now owe.

And to everyone who has been affected by the wage subsidies that the pandemic brought about, there are still ways you can look to in order to lessen the bill just a little. And as a reminder, if you have not claimed either of the two below since 2017, you can still be eligible for the past four years.

1: Flat Rate Expenses

This would be a huge win if you’re eligible and you have yet to claim it this year or in the last four years. These expenses were brought about into the market many years ago in order to be able to cover the many expenses that employees will incur …

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The Rich Becoming Richer

In the past year, the term “the rich get richer” has been remarkably accurate. We have seen the top 10 richest individual’s personal wealth increase tremendously and even witnessed Elon Musk become the richest person on earth, passing Warren Buffet on the way. This trend has not been exempted from Ireland’s billionaires. Of the 9 billionaires in Ireland, they have seen their collective wealth increase by €3.28 billion in 2020, despite going through the deepest global recession this decade. And to put that into perspective, 1/10 of that additional wealth would be able to pay for the COVID vaccine to be available to every citizen in Ireland.

Internationally, we are beginning to see a larger divide between the rich and everyone else. This move towards greater inequality has only been highlighted during the pandemic. It is said that the worlds’ one thousand richest people were able to recover from their financial losses due to COVID within nine months, while it will take more than a decade for the world’s poorest countries to do the same. And since the majority of …

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What does Quarantine’s End Mean for Property Prices?

Dublin property agents predict that local property prices can see as large as a 5% increase as the lockdown regulations are lifted in the upcoming months. Many agencies have reported a large influx of registered potential buyers, some firms even registering nearly tripe the number as the same period in past years. This rush of buyers is largely due to the pandemic putting stops to many families’ plans of setting and signing mortgages. For others, it may be the desire to invest in a discounted property before prices skyrocket. Regardless, the sudden increase in demand for properties is sure to cause discrepancies within the real estate market.

Several factors driving demand include the strength of new mortgage approvals in the last quarter of 2020, and the growing availability and willingness of mortgage-lending rule exemptions of banks to offer to potential borrowers in 2021. There has also been a large group of potential buyers who have recently obtained loan approvals and are potential targets for these mortgage-lending rule exemptions in the past 6 months.

As for the number of properties in …

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Higher Loan Growth Expected as the Pandemic Lifts

Spain’s large lender company: Bankinter, which currently owns Avant Money, has published new research results. These results predict the outcome of loan growth and higher lending income across its citizens and markets as lower provisions led to its 4th-quarter profits to fall less than in previous quarters.

The lender identified possible success within its Irish market business. Especially for the reason of offering credit card, home, and mortgage loans. After releasing these research results, we saw Banklinter’s shares rise by more than 7% this past Thursday after it stated that is their net interest income would be growing in 2021 despite the negative interest rates in the first half. Net Interest Income (NII) is defined by the difference between the company’s’ earnings on loans and the costs.

Bankinter’s chief financial officer, Mr. Diaz, has spoken up and told analysts that the company is expected to show strong actives of loan growth in both mortgage and consumer lending in Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. This is shown by Net profit at the bank falling to 8.7% to €97 million compared to €115 …

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Tips to Switching Your Mortgage

Changing your mortgage plan may very well be the best or worst decision you can ever make. If done well, it could relieve you of a lot of financial stress and help save you a large amount of money. This seems like such a big task, so we have broken it down and listed a few tips on how to get started!

First, understand your current situation. What are your scheduled payment amounts and how does that affect your budget? What type of mortgage do you have right now? Do you have an interest-only mortgage, a pension mortgage, an annuity mortgage, or a different type of mortgage? Most importantly would be the current interest rate you are paying. And all these factors can make a difference when changing mortgages and if that transition is for you. For example, with a standard variable rate (the rate you will be charged at the end of your fixed interest rate), switching can save a lot of money.

Second, make sure to do your own research and speak to multiple banks and mortgage brokers. …

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Non-credit fuelled booms

There has been an ongoing narrative that the last housing boom (and many others) was only possible due to excessive credit. We have argued for a long time that this is a mistaken interpretation. While credit can make a bad situation worse, just like adding fuel to a flame, it is not the genesis of the problem.

We were pleased to see this view articulated by the Central Bank Governor Philip Lane recently. He stated that “cash buyers of property are limiting the ability of the Central Bank to control house prices through mortgage lending rules” he “singled out cash buyers as one of the key drivers of inflation in the Irish property market. Cash buyers used to account for about 25 per cent of house purchases in Ireland, but since the crash and ensuing credit crunch this figure has risen to 60 per cent“.

This is a point we have been making for years, firstly was that first time buyers are not, and have not been the problem. That was part of why we were specifically …

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