I wonât have a bad word said against him ever again
Itâs only a short distance between a stand on a toe and a lick of a boot.
The clubs in Sligo can afford a sports psychologist now, so they can picture their inner ants winning. Itâs pretty much as good as an all Ireland.
Beautiful. I cried reading that.
Fair play to @LionelRitchie for putting more meat on the bones of the points heâs been making on TFK.
Go on then, what is it?
First things first, can a statue be erected outside the gaelic grounds?
There should be one in Castleconnell/UL direction aswell
I think a 100 foot high christ the redemptior style statue on the clare hills facing the gaelic grounds will to. Bare arse showing towards Clare.
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JP could keep his hands in his pockets and do nothing but when he does those mugs in PBP will moan about it.
Joe Brolly: The taxing issue of JPâs âŹ32m gift to GAA clubs
âIf you suspect that tax is a rigged game, a con, designed to fleece the little guy, you are about to find out how shockingly true that is âŚâ
Taxtopia. The Rebel Accountant
If you are very rich, paying tax is optional. You can self regulate. There are any number of tax havens out there. You only have to be rich enough to afford to base yourself in one and â poof â your money is your own. There is nothing illegal about it. You just need to follow some basic rules depending on the particular tax haven.
Switzerland is described by Investopedia as the second most desirable tax haven in the world. Swiss bankers say they hold at least 30 per cent of the estimated $15 trillion of personal wealth hidden in the worldâs tax havens. And they make no apologies for it.
By paying local authorities (called cantons) a fee (usually five times the rental value of your house), you can avoid paying any income tax at all. The canton will also negotiate with you to help you get the most favourable deal.
âWhen it comes to helping wealthy foreigners to avoid tax, the Swiss do not mess around. Under article 47 of their criminal code, bank employees who leak information about an account holder are charged and a prison sentence is inevitable.
In 2008, Bradley Birkenfeld, a Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) banker was arrested in the US for organising tax fraud. Bradley had been careless, got caught, and with the loyalty that is the hallmark of the banking industry, promptly cut a deal with the Feds. He testified about how the bankâs employees travel abroad to recruit wealthy clients. How they lie on their visa forms about the purpose of the visit.
How they are armed with state of the art encrypted laptops. How they are specially trained in counter surveillance techniques. How UBS shifts clientsâ money into secretive offshore accounts, destroys evidence of those accounts and stores their banking records in a vault in Zurich. It was a rare glimpse into a highly secretive world. No wonder The Wolf of Wall Street chose Switzerland.
Once you are set up in a tax haven, it is good practice to bestow a little charity on the less fortunate. In his masterpiece Winners Take All,Anand Giridharadas calls it âthe new religion of false philanthropy.â Instead of paying the taxes that are the life support of any country, giving becomes a personal, voluntary matter.
A PR industry has sprung up around billionaires (they make up 0.001 per cent of the worldâs population) that casts them as humanitarians and heroes. It is important not to rub the little peopleâs noses in it too much. So, you donate a childrenâs hospital wing or support a popular sports star or team and in this way become a national treasure. Except with the bloody lefties and those people before profit commies.
The PR coaxes us not to criticise but to applaud the winners. We are begrudgers if we criticise. We are made to feel spiteful and ungrateful. Why canât you just celebrate the success of these winners? Why are you jealous of their private jets and yachts and helicopters? What the hell is wrong with you?
âSo, when PBP councillor Madeleine Johansson tweeted âJust pay your f**king taxes,â Fianna FĂĄil TD Willie OâDea angrily countered, âJP voluntarily donates millions of his own money to good causes. Letâs leave the envy to one side and celebrate whatâs being done.â
Or as my good friend TomĂĄs Ă SĂŠ tweeted in 2018 when JP donated âŹ3.2m to the GAA, âIs it an Irish thing or what but the negativity aimed at JP McManus for the gesture he gifted on every GAA club in the country is wrong. He didnât have to do it and does so much no one sees or hears. We should be grateful and let the haters hate!! MĂle BuĂochas JP.â
In this world, billionaires know best how to spend their money. Governments are wasters. Charity, not paying taxes, is the true solution to inequality. The new way of saving the world is private, voluntary and accountable to no one.
Let us imagine for a moment that every citizen of Ireland could register in a tax haven for a nominal fee, say âŹ20. Or that every citizen could simply opt out of paying tax. They could, instead, at their sole discretion, make donations to good causes. It is certain that the vast majority of people would opt out. Within months, without tax receipts, Irish society would collapse. No money for teachers or police officers or bus drivers or schools or hospitals or vital infrastructure. So my question is this: Why should tax be optional for billionaires but not for nurses?
âHere is the compromise: Leave us billionaires alone and we will look after you when our winnings are won. We will spend it much more wisely than any government. In this compromise, generosity is a substitute for a fairer and more equal system of living. The winners do not have to make any sacrifices.
They do not have to play by the same rules as the rest of us. They are great men and we should be thankful that they sprinkle us with some of the profits of their greatness every now and again. And it works. Their public displays of generosity are enough to keep us off their backs and preserve the status quo.
The trick is to donate in a way that is eye catching and pulls at the heart strings. What better way to achieve it than through a beloved community organisation? This provides moral cover. It feels good. And it does good. As Trump might say, âit really does.â
But it is a pleasant fantasy. It means the billionaire does not have to interact with messy reality. It avoids the duty of citizenship. It is a dystopian world where the rich and powerful get to decide what is best for the world. And what is best for the world is what is best for them.
The cheque for âŹ1m that was sent to Roscommon GAA from JP McManus.
âWe tend to be star struck by vast wealth. I remember as a child the way the Dungiven people spoke in awed whispers about our only millionaire, the gravel magnate Tommy OâConnell. How they admired his fine horse and carriage when he took it out for a spin. How they nudged each other and said, âThereâs Tommyâ when he came into the chapel on a Sunday or appeared at a social event.
The first time I encountered JP was when I was strolling towards the RTĂ box in the Gaelic Grounds and a large military grade chopper came whirring in behind the stand. âThereâs JP and his entourage,â said Colm. âBloody hell,â I said. It is the closest I ever got to him.
After that, I donât know much about him. I know he is revered in Limerick and that he has donated a lot of money to countless good causes. I know he owns Adare Manor and has a fabulous mansion in Limerick said to cost âŹ100m. I know his estimated worth is âŹ2bn (two thousand million euro). I know that he won $17.4m on a game of backgammon in 2015.
Now, he has made an eye-watering donation of âŹ32m to the GAA communities of Ireland and for that I applaud him. Two winning games of backgammon might not be much to JP but for a small club in Leitrim, âŹ26,000 is massive.
All of that is grand so far as it goes. But if you are an Irishman, if you have respect and empathy for the people of Ireland, you should pay your taxes here. You should be pulling your weight with the nurses and teachers and firemen. Not counting the days to make sure you donât go over your 182-day residency limit.
John Patrick McManus, pay your taxes here.
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Itâs great to have Joe as our moral compass.
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He did well there. Walked the tightrope brilliantly.
Statesmanlike
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I hear McManus is planning to build a solid gold house.
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The Flurry Knoxes will love that.
Paddy does his best to not to take legitimate tax money off Apple, but this nordie cunt can moralise about PJ who operates to the letter of the law, the sickening little bollix, exiles like me and PJ keep the lights on at home
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Brolly is toxic and its only a matter of time before the Sunday Indo will do what RTE did.
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The Sunday Indo employs David Quinn and Eilis OâHanlon but apparently itâs Joe Brolly whoâs supposed to be âtoxicâ.
Christ above.
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Ah stop 