Not going to pay the household charge? The Government has a new way to get your money…

Are you planning on paying the dreaded household charge? No? That’s okay, because apparently the Government is just going to take it out of your bank account.

The Irish Daily Star reports that plans to forcibly remove money from people’s bank accounts and benefit payments are currently being drawn up by the Government. So it looks as though there might not be any way to avoid paying the controversial €100 fine.

Speaking about the proposed plan, the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, said that changes to the original legislation will allow the State to ask the courts for approval to “deduct from source” the fines incurred by not paying the charge or paying it after the March 31st deadline has passed. Simply put, the Government will seek court approval to grab the money out of your bank account.

Mr Hogan went on to say that the fines, which could swiftly add up over the space of a few months, could eventually be taken directly from people’s pay packets.

“We will have legislation that will allow a court to, in certain circumstances, allow the State to deduct from source,” he said.

The majority of householders have yet to pay the charge, and there are many people who refuse, point blank, to cough up more money to the Government.

The Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes has been urging homeowners to boycott the fee. Anti-household charge protestors have claimed that they would rather be locked up in jail than pay the fee, however these changes to the original legislation will prevent people going to jail. Instead the money will simply be taken, whether the homeowner agrees to pay it or not.

The latest figures show that only 15 per cent of the households that are liable for the charge have paid. Homeowners who still haven’t forked out the money by March 31 could face a hefty fine between €1,000 and €2,500 – they will also have to deal with late payment penalties, which will continue to rise, the longer the charge goes unpaid.

The only good news is that even the Ministers themselves will have to pay up. The Government’s press office issued a statement yesterday which clarified that personal properties owned by Ministers will not be exempt from the household charge.

“Properties owned by Government departments are exempt – not personal properties owned by Ministers,” it said.

Either way, no one is safe from the household charge and if the Government can't get it willingly, they'll just take it by force.