asked the Minister for Finance the revenue collected from savings accounts, which earn in excess of £70 interest in the last two financial years.
Written Answers. - Savings Accounts.
661.
Statistics are not available which would enable the precise information requested by the Deputy to be given.
Using income distribution statistics for the year 1980-81, which are the latest available basic data, it is tentatively estimated that the income tax yield attributable to income assessed under Case III of Schedule D (Section 53 (1), Income Tax Act, 1967) for that year was about £30 million.
662.
asked the Minister for Finance the revenue expected from savings accounts in excess of £50 interest in the coming financial year.
Presumably the Deputy has in mind the effect of section 8 of the Finance Bill, 1983, on the revenue yield for 1983. That section made two changes in section 344 of the Income Tax Act, 1967, which provides for exemption from tax, subject to specified limitations, on interest from deposits with certain financial institutions.
Section 8—
(a) reduced from £70 to £50 the amount of interest qualifying for exemption on deposits with the commercial banks (as listed in section 344),
(b) reduced from £150 to £120 the amount of interest qualifying for exemption on deposits with the Post Office and Trustee Savings Banks, and
(c) added the Agricultural Credit Corporation, Limited, to the list of commercial banks contained in section 344.
The combined effect of these changes is expected to result in an increased yield for 1983 of £0.5 million.