asked the Minister for Finance the additional number of persons who will become liable for income tax as a result of the provisions of the Finance Bill and increases in personal and old age pensions.
41.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Income Tax Liability.
40.
asked the Minister for Finance if, in view of his statement that 60,000 persons have been removed from the income tax net, he will state the number of additional persons who will have to pay income tax this year who did not do so last year.
42.
asked the Minister for Finance the number of persons liable for income tax in the financial year 1973-74; and the number liable for the transitional financial period 1974.
I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 40, 41, and 42 together.
It is estimated that about 730,000 individuals were effectively liable to income tax in 1973-74. The reliefs announced in the budget were such as to remove about 60,000 of those from the tax net. The number of individuals who will be effectively liable to income tax for 1974-75 will not be known until some time after the end of the year, when particulars regarding assessments made in the year and other relevant information on which the estimates can be based become available. It is not possible therefore to say at this stage how many extra taxpayers will become liable in the course of the current income tax year.
Having regard to the new personal allowances for income tax however it can be stated that no person in receipt of an old age pension, contributory or non-contributory even at the maximum rates, will have to pay income tax in respect of such pension.
Is the Minister aware that people, like CIE employees, who have received increases as a result of his budget are now finding that portion of that has to go back by way of income tax?
Cases may arise where people have income in addition to pensions and they may be liable for income tax on such additional income. That position has always existed and has not been changed.
Would the Minister agree that the form that has grown up over the years in saying so many people will be effectively removed from the income tax net is not entirely honest because when statistics come out the following year it can be seen that this is not so? Maybe 60,000 are removed from the tax net but 50,000 could be taken in.
False figures in other words.
At the end of the following year the figure would be 60,000 greater than it would have been if the number had not been taken out of the net.
False figures; trick-o'-the-loop.
Can the Minister inform the House why he can, on the one hand assess the number who will be removed from the tax net while at the same time he cannot say how many will be added to it? If it is possible to get one figure surely it must be possible to get the other.
No, because we know on a certain day that there are so many taxpayers. We are not in a position to know how many taxpayers there may be, for example, on 5th April next year. It will depend upon the rates of income which they are earning at that time whether or not they come within the tax net. It can be said that the number would be 60,000 greater if the concessions in this year's budget had not been granted.
I should like to ask the Minister if in assessing the figure of 60,000 he was basing their incomes on a tax year in which the new proposals would not apply? When the new proposals apply a different circumstance will prevail because the incomes will have changed. In actual fact it is not possible to give an accurate assessment at all of the number of persons who will benefit under the changed income tax proposals.
The figure of 60,000 relates to the number of income tax payers as of the date of the commencement of the financial year.
I am calling the next question.
We must get the truth.
The Chair has been very liberal but we must pass on.
I should like to ask the Minister if the statement about the 60,000 persons meant that 60,000 persons have been removed from the income tax net?
60,000 people who were previously liable would not be liable as a consequence of the budget provisions.
Trick-o'-the-loop; dishonest, false propaganda and we will expose it.