Dealing with Revenue

‘Revenue Commissioners’ can send a shiver down ones back – a fear factor that should the Revenue audit your company, they may find a mistake or even worse identify an evasion of tax.   The small business owner in the 80’s and 90’s traditionally lived in fear of the Revenue Commissioners and in the last ten years a huge movement by the Revenue to make themselves more approachable was undertaken with great success.    

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Choose a Safe Summer Camp

Parents should do their homework

It’s TIME for parents to do their homework on summer camps. Thousands of parents will pay out millions of euro on a range of activity camps this summer.

In most cases, they will happily pass responsibility for their child to a person or group of strangers with no background checks. You could be handling your child to anyone.

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Survival Guide 2010

Four simple points to make sure you keep focused on the critical elements of your business.
1.    Make sure you don’t miss a sales call!  -   many customers are now opening through lunch, many divert the office telephone to the mobile over the weekend and even more efficient is to engage a cost effective virtual office service such as  Kendlebell  (www.kbvo.ie)

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Medical card eligibility- in a nutshell

A medical card could save you tens of thousands of euro each year and you don’t need to be on social welfare to be eligible.  Approximately 30% of the population are covered by a medical card.  Calculating whether you are eligible or not seems complex and time-consuming. Consider however, that if you do qualify for a medical card you will also be exempt from the income levy (2% of income up to €75,000, 4% above this and below €174,980), the health contribution levy (4%) and possibly school transport charges and state exam fees.  You may also be eligible for assistance with buying school books.

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A healthier way to save money

Cutting out cigarettes and reducing your alcohol intake could save your household up to €7,750 a year.  We spend 3 times more on alcohol than any other European country- on average around €1,700 each, a year. That alcohol is expensive to buy in Ireland is no doubt a factor.  According to Alcohol Action Ireland however, we continue to rank among the highest consumers of alcohol in the EU drinking on average 20% more than our EU counterparts. Not brave enough to suggest cutting out alcohol altogether, I can recommend at least cutting down on what you drink. 

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Using directory enquiries? Pull the finger out.

You know who you are.  In a hurry, you ring for a number for a Taxi or for a plumber, any plumber when the water pipes are frozen.  Being time poor racks up though.  If you use either 11850 or 11890 you are paying between 200 and 500% more for your “urgent” enquiry than is necessary. Three enquiries a week to 11850, lasting less than a minute will add an extra €20 a month to your phone bill.  And if you are mad/rich/lazy enough to let 11850 put you through when they offer so nicely, then each connected call will be charged at the premium rate of 69c a minute on top of this. This is true of all directory service providers, to varying degrees.

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Private maternity care – a costly delivery

Expectant Mums continue to pay between 2500 and 5000 euro for private care in the expectation that it will mean better choice, control and continuity of care and a safer birth. Inadequate information means that many private patients are unaware of free, grant-aided or much less expensive alternative schemes capable of meeting their needs, in some cases much better than private care. As an ex-nurse with experience of working in UK maternity wards and as a mother of 3 children delivered privately in Ireland, I can attest to the fact that instead of choice and participation the experience of childbirth can be frighteningly passive and nothing short of archaic. In a maternity system which will deliver over 75,000 babies this year, public or private, you are little more a unit of production, ideally delivering within 12 hours.

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