Three reasons commodities are headed higher in 2021

In the run-up to budget 2021, a debate is raging between those who think big and those who think very, very big. What constraints are Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath under?

Sinn Féin’s tax-raising proposals fish from a small pool of individuals – those earning over €100,000, those inheriting property worth more than €302,000, those with second houses, those buying expensive houses, those with assets in excess of €1 million and those with private pensions. But does it all add up?

What do I want to see in the Budget? A Vat reduction for hospitality. Changes to CGT and examinership laws. A new digital upskilling programme. A new tax commission. And lots of ambition and leadership.

MIT coined the phrase Innovation-Driven Enterprises to differentiate them from traditional SMEs. And amid the threats of Covid-19, Brexit and global tax reform, we are going to need them more than ever. That will require a change of official thinking and the introduction of new policies.

Much delayed legislation introduced by the Government on Wednesday will apply to Ireland the carbon budgeting world standard developed by the UK since 2008. It may not ban petrol cars as promised, but its ambition is much bigger: regulate the collaboration between scientific experts and politicians in solving their greatest challenge for the next 30 years.

I think a focus on minimising the deficit is totally wrong-headed in the middle of a pandemic, but maximising the deficit makes no sense either. Planning for a large scale multi-annual stimulus seems to me to be a far better option.

Our housing crisis traces back to a dysfunctional market for land. The good news is that the problems are self-inflicted, and they can be fixed.

A decision of the Supreme Court in Bookfinders v. Revenue brought an end to a bitter VAT dispute rumbling on for the last 15 years and gave significant guidance on how tax law should be read.

My friend was raising money for a start-up. I was seeking funds for a house. Neither have been easy but along the two different journeys, there have been a lot of similarities worth noting.

The Central Bank of Ireland has started publishing new data on mortgage arrears – and the news is not good. An arrears crisis is brewing. The banks, and the state, are woefully unprepared for it.