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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 30 Jun 1988

Vol. 382 No. 11

Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - PRSI for Self-Employed.

3.

asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will confirm that £15 million will be received in 1988 from the introduction of social insurance for the self-employed in the light of the facts that (a) certain directors will only be contacted in the next year for registration (b) registration forms have yet to be issued to all 180,000 Schedule D taxpayers (c) 20,000 small farmers will not receive their special bills until October 1988 and (d) the advertising information campaign for those not registered into either the Revenue Commissioners or the Department of Social Welfare has not yet issued; and if he will make a statement on the estimated total yield in 1988.

21.

asked the Minister for Social Welfare if the arrangements for the collection of PRSI from the self-employed are now in place; the number of self-employed people who have been issued with registration forms; and the amount which has been paid or is payable by his Department for the recent national publicity campaign regarding the extension of PRSI undertaken by his Department.

64.

asked the Minister for Social Welfare the arrangements which are in place in his Department for the collection of the flat rate of PRSI from small farmers; whether this money is payable through the post office; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose taking Questions Nos. 3, 21 and 64 together.

Arrangements for collecting pay-related social insurance contributions from the self-employed are well advanced. The estimate of £15 million for receipts from the new contribution this year is based on the amounts expected to be collected from the 180,000 people already registered by the Revenue Commissioners in the Schedule D tax category and the 40,000 directors who are already paying tax through the PAYE system (Schedule E). Commencement of the collection is not, therefore, dependent on them being registered in advance in my Department. The new contribution will be collected in the same transactions as the tax. Collection has already commenced in respect of the PAYE taxpayers and payment by the Schedule D taxpayers is due, with their tax payments, during the last quarter of the year. I am, therefore, satisfied that the figure of £15 million is a reasonable estimate.

Of the 180,000 people registered for Schedule D tax, 60,000 are already on my Department's files and registration forms have been issued to the other 120,000. The Collector-General of the Revenue Commissioners will shortly be issuing tax and social insurance assessments to all the people registered for Schedule D tax.

Self-employed people, including small farmers, who are liable to pay a flat rate contribution of £104, will be able to pay their contribution by instalments through post offices. Officers of my Department have met with officials from An Post to work out the arrangements for accepting these payments. Persons who are not registered with either my Department or the Revenue Commissioners will be asked through a further phase of the advertising campaign, later in the year, to apply for registration.

The overall budget for publicity in connection with the extension of social insurance to the self-employed for 1988 is £150,000. The present advertising campaign during June and July is aimed at advising people of the benefits and requirements of the new social insurance scheme and is costing £90,000.

I want to remind the Minister about the debate on the subject and the fear we expressed at that time that this would grow into substantial arrears. What will the position be where people do not respond? Will they be liable for the payment of the contribution from the commencement date or will they be allowed to establish substantial arrears of payment and then go into the same arrangements as we had with service charges by local authorities?

No, they will be liable from commencement date. As I explained in the reply, the vast majority of the people, 180,000, are within the system and are clearly identifiable. The measure is being taken to ensure that the balance come in.

How does the Minister intend to pursue people who are not registered with the Revenue Commissioners?

The first approach is to make the measure available to them and invite them to participate. That is the phase we are in at this stage. We will go beyond that when we have to.

Even with Miley giving us all the virtues of the scheme, I do not think those who have evaded paying their taxes are now going to start paying their PRSI. Perhaps some of the publicity money could be directed towards pursuing those who default.

We will have to give them a chance to default first because we have plenty of defaulters without pursuing the ones who may be going to default. I am glad the Deputy showed her appreciation of Miley's piece on radio. I thought it very good. We have taken a number of steps to meet this. Very often it is a question with people in those groups of making it easier to do rather than saying they have to write to somebody, get a form, send the form back and whatever. There was a great deal of interest at the Spring Show and we intend to bring the matter out to people to try to ensure that the maximum number are registered.

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