Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 23 Jun 1994

Vol. 444 No. 3

Written Answers. - Cost of Tax Relief.

Proinsias De Rossa

Question:

61 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Finance if, in regard to changes announced in the 1994 budget regarding the widening of the basic personal allowance and the standard band, he will give the full cost of the relief granted, the number of taxpayers who benefited and the method of calculation used.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

The information requested is as follows:

Budget 1994

Changes	1994 Cost £million	Full Year Cost £million	Estimated number of taxpayers benefiting from these changes
Personal allowances increased by £175 for single and widowed taxpayers and by £350 for married taxpayers	45.3	76.3	772,500
Standard band increased by £525 (single)/£1,050 (married)	34.4	58.2	388,400

The cost of the increases in the personal allowances includes the cost of the associated increases in the one-parent family allowances. The numbers of taxpayers shown as benefiting from the increases in the standard band are included in the numbers benefiting from the increases in personal allowances.

These calculations are performed on the Revenue Commissioners' computer based income tax forecasting model. This model replicates the existing income tax rules on a database which is periodically extracted from the mainstream income tax systems. The model allows queries and scenarios to be run against the complete taxpayer database.