La ricchezza irlandese raggiunge la cifra record di 1.300 miliardi di euro, ma le famiglie hanno paura di investirla in azioni

It feels like investments beyond property are not very encouraged in Ireland

What clickbait. It’s not fear, it’s the fact that every investment in stocks and shares gets penalised via deemed disposal and extra tax on ETFs

The perception here is that stocks and shares are only for very very wealthy individuals who probably live in other countries. Revenue absolutely crucifies you for any profits you make and there’s a whole load of frightening bureaucracy around it – the net result is most of us go “ah sure that’s something they do somewhere else…” and at most they go off and invest in property speculation, because that is incentivised and known about.

It is so much hassle to trade on a small basis here that it’s just not worth it for most people.

We’re great at saying everything’s “cultural” when in reality it’s blatantly structural. There’s no investment culture because there’s been a long history of structures in place to make sure that it is something that’s very unattractive to do.

Even compared to the Northern Ireland and the UK, the Republic’s an awful location for anyone who’s investing in stocks and shares. You’d actually be far better off emigrating to Britain if you’re going to do that and I don’t think we’ll look into modernising or progressing this, as there’s a massive tall poppy thing around it too.

It would be very beneficial to Ireland to get some of the speculative focus off housing and onto Irish stocks and shares actually too. We might even have a VC market for domestic tech and a whole little eco system beginning to thrive, but nah – do ye think you’re in California? — just keep focusing on American FDI dependency and tax the bejayus out of anything useful.

We should be leveraging the money we have at the moment to build something much better – what worries me is we’ll squander the boom and it might never repeat and be left standing with very little to show for it in terms of domestic investment and businesses.

Deemed disposal. 

The government could reverse this with the stroke of a pen and take some heat out of property. 

Remember remember the Eircom sale. Those shares were all but worthless by the end.

I’d say that experience will have put off many.

“Wealth hits €1.3 trillion but nobody wants to speculate wildly on snake oil salesmen and grifters’ get-rich-quick schemes. But why?”

We are trying to get rid of gambling in this country…

You also get taxed to the hilt for it. 

That’s why everyone obsesses over property as an investment instead. 

It’s a shame that the government aren’t willing to support tax reform if not tax free investment accounts like in the UK or the US.

It’s mad that in Belfast one can invest £20k a year tax free and in Dublin you’ve got deemed disposal rules. 

Many have said it but what’s stops me is the tax. It quite punishing to invest here. There’s little to no upside on the risk taken. When compared to property there’s no competition in my mind. 

If the government changed that I’d invest more in stocks / shares over property 

Is the wealth in the room with us now??

They should test this thesis by making it CGT free

Yes,  my landlord is very wealthy