Majority think new homes smaller

A SURVEY by local company Smart Storage Ltd has found that just over half of respondents in Co Wicklow believe that houses are being built smaller than those constructed in previous years.

The company, which is based in Newtownmountkennedy, has just released its first annual survey of home owners, their thoughts on the sizes of homes being built today and the ability of homes to function as liveable areas in today’s modern world.

The survey showed that the majority of respondents across the county (52 per cent) believe that houses are being built smaller than the ones in the past while eleven per cent believed them to be about the same.

Storage was also a major factor with homeowners with over half (55 per cent) believing that modern homes lack adequate storage spaces. Two thirds (66 per cent) of older respondents (over 55) believe that houses do not have adequate storage while 44 per cent of respondents felt that the kitchen was the area of the house which had the greatest need for additional storage space.

‘As we install more and more of our unique home storage solutions across Ireland and the UK we see how important storage is to families as they change and grow in size or as older generations downsize,’ said Paul Jacob, MD of Smart Storage.

‘Smart Storage has installed over 15,000 storage systems and it strikes us that house designs haven’t changed much since the Victorian period,’ he said. ‘In these older designs, storage is at a premium and householders firmly believe that houses today are shrinking compared to what they lived in before.’ PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins must be a very hard worker as he signed the Finance Act 2016 into law on Christmas Day 2016. As far as historians are aware, an act was never before signed into law on Christmas Day.

There is a major change in the rules for gift and inheritance taxes in the new act. Up to 25/12/2016 a person who lived in a house for three years and had no other house could receive, exempt from taxes, a gift or inheritance of that house.

The new rules cancel this provision and instead restrict the house so that it has to be the house where both the giver of the inheritance and the beneficiary reside and the beneficiary must be there for the last three years and have no other house.

There is no exemption where the house is gifted from one person to the other unless the beneficiary is over 65 years or, if under 65 years, permanently and totally incapacitated. Also, here there is no requirement that the giver of the gift be also resident in the house.

The general tax-free exemption for gifts and inheritances parent to child is raised from €280,000 to €310,000.

A new ten per cent rate of Capital Gains Tax is introduced for sales of business assets. It applies on gains of up to €1m. The normal rate of CGT is 33 per cent of the gain.

In an attempt to control the rise in the house prices during the Celtic Tiger period, landlords could only deduct 75 per cent of loan interest paid for loans on let houses. This has now been changed with a five per cent increase for each year to 2021 when 100 per cent relief will be available.

The Universal Social Charge is still with us despite its being introduced six years ago as a crisis provision to prevent the State going bust. The rates of USC for 2017 are as follows: First €12,012 0.5% Next €6,760 2.5% Next €41,272 5% Above €70,045 8%

Non PAYE income, e.g. sole trader profits, over €100,000 are subject to a special rate of 11 per cent on the excess over €100,000.

PRSI is unchanged at four per cent so that a person paying income tax at the top rate of 40 per cent will also have to pay PRSI at four per cent and USC at either five per cent or eight per cent.

This is a total of either 50 per cent or 53 per cent depending on the rate of USC and is high by international standards.

As most of the populations are employed under PAYE and receives what is known as the PAYE credit the self-employed people had sought a similar credit.

For 2016 they got, for the first time, an Earned Income Credit of €550. From 1/1/2017 this is now increased to €950 per person. It is also available for proprietary directors who cannot get the PAYE credit.

If you already qualify for the PAYE credit due to the receipt of the Old Age Pension you will not be entitled to the Earned Income Credit even though you are still self-employed. |