asked the Minister for Finance the estimated number of taxpayers who will be affected by the provision, announced in his budget statement, whereby only half the appropriate personal allowances will be granted to taxpayers in receipt of farming income, in respect of their non-farming income; and the estimated amount of revenue to be derived from this provision.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Non-Farming Income Taxation.
29.
Income tax statistics are not compiled in such a manner as to enable precise information to be given. However, it is tentatively estimated that about 5,000 taxpayers would be affected by the proposal, the yield from which is likely to be of the order of £250,000 in a full year.
May I ask the Minister if in that approximate 5,000 he has mentioned such people as married old age pensioners living on small-holdings would be included? They will apparently now be liable for over £92 per year income tax.
No. The Deputy is being emotive about this. The number affected is very small in relation to the 730,000 income tax payers. Small holders will not be involved. I certainly cannot visualise that there will be many, if any, of the type of couples the Deputy mentioned.
Would the Minister explain why these smallholders will not be involved?
Because they will not be involved.
That is not what the Minister said in the budget. He said in the budget that smallholders will be involved. Does he accept that?
The Deputy is well aware the budget does not spell out all the small print of the Finance Bill. The Finance Bill deals with matters of detail and I am saying now that smallholders will not be involved.
Is the Minister backtracking on this too?
Is the Minister now stating that smallholders and their wives will not be involved? He should make a clear statement on this.
The statement will be very clear and I am glad to know I have the support of the Fianna Fáil Party in ensuring the people we have in mind to exclude will be excluded.
The Minister made a statement. Will he now make a clear-cut statement, as Deputy Callanan has asked him to do?
When the Minister is so sure that only 5,000 will be affected, can he state what valuation criteria he is using?
I have given figures the Revenue Commissioners consider to be justified. They have to be related to rather broad assumptions because the detailed information on which to give a decision in these matters is simply not available. That is one of the great problems I have to face as Minister for Finance. The statistical information upon which to make decisions is not available because the previous Government made no effort whatsoever to collect it.
The Chair will pass to the next question after this supplementary. Deputies will have an opportunity later of debating this matter.
We did not get a reply to this important matter.
The Chair has no control over that.
In his statement that only 5,000 people would be involved, the Minister must have applied some criterion to have come to that figure. I am asking him how he arrived at the figure of 5,000.
In regard to valuation.
There are a number of broad assumptions here, not merely the question of valuation or the number of farmers claiming income tax allowances for working wives. The Revenue Commissioners have some information on these matters but they have not the detailed information the Deputies are requiring me to invent.
What assumption was made in regard to valuation?
It could be 100,000 people as much as 5,000.
The Chair is calling Question No. 30.
This is a very important matter on which the Minister appears to be making a statement.
We must pass to the next question. The Chair has allowed considerable latitude on this matter.
The Minister appears to be making a statement directly contrary to what was stated in the budget. If this is so, is it not due to the House that he should now clarify, to some extent at least, what he is saying? He was twice asked a specific question by Deputy MacSharry but we did not receive a reply. Will the Minister now give a reply to the question: at what level of valuation will people be excluded from this provision in the budget, and on what level was it applied by the Revenue Commissioners in the broad assumptions they made?
I have not the information the Deputy is looking for.
I presume the Minister will be making an announcement at the Ard Fheis.
Is the Minister aware——
I have already called Question No. 30.
What does the Minister——
The Deputy has heard the Chair call the next question.
We have got through 30 questions in 30 minutes.
We must pass to the next question.
Is the Minister aware that farmers are now paying twice as much tax as their fellow-workers in industry as a result of Fine Gael and Labour policy? The small farmers are paying more in income tax——
It was the policy of the Deputy's party also.
Order. I have called Question No. 30.