HAVE

you heard the ads warning locksmiths they will be locked up if they don’t pay a licence fee to the Government’s ‘Private Security Authority’? The PSA warned us last year that if you get your brother-in-law to install an alarm system you buy in Aldi, and he hasn’t paid them a fee, the two of you could end up in Mountjoy! The quango has decided every locksmith – even those not making any money – must pay an ‘administration’ fee of €1,000, plus a ‘turnover tax’ that can hit €26,000 depending on the size of the business. Failure to regularly pay leads to massive fines and up to five years in prison. So, the key to squeezing more money out of hard-pressed businesses is to magic up a new, meaningless tax!