Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 16 Jun 1998

Vol. 492 No. 4

Written Answers. - Tax Reliefs.

Richard Bruton

Question:

187 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the number and value of applications for tax relief for investment in higher education in the 1997-98 tax year and to date in the current tax year; and the section of the tax code in respect of which tax relief is being claimed. [14290/98]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

The two main tax reliefs which were introduced to encourage investment in third level education are section 485 and section 843 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997.

Section 485, formerly section 16 of the Finance Act, 1997, provides tax relief for personal and corporate gifts of money of £1,000 or more to approved third level institutions for an "approved project". Project means: (a) the undertaking of research, (b) the acquisition of equipment, (c) certain infrastructural development and (d) the provision of facilities designed to increase student numbers in areas of skill needs.

The Minister for Education and Science must certify projects on the basis of guidelines agreed with me. The Revenue Commissioners have informed me that they do not have statistical information on the number and value of applications as requested.

Section 843, formerly section 25 of the Finance Act, 1997, as amended by section 44 of the Finance Act, 1998, provides for the granting of capital allowances at 15 per cent per annum, 10 per cent in year seven, for capital expenditure projects in the third level education sector where at least half of the cost of the project is to be meet from private subscriptions.

In the 1997-98 tax year, I approved two applications for relief under this provision and a further application is on hands.

As the Deputy will be aware, there are a number of other tax reliefs relating to third level education and a brief description of these is given below for the Deputy's information. All the following sections may be found in the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997: section 474, relief for fees paid to private colleges for full-time third level undergraduate education; and section 475, relief for fees paid for part-time third level undergraduate education. The Revenue Commissioners have informed me that the most recent estimate of the number of applications for these two reliefs for the 1997-8 tax year is 957 claimants at a cost of £0.3 million. These figures for the 1997-8 tax year are provisional and are likely to be revised.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the information from income tax returns is not recorded in such a way that it would be possible to provide an estimate of the number of claims for the following tax reliefs for investment in higher education except for section 792 for which some data in respect of corporate donations is available. To obtain the information it would be necessary to identify the cases and extract the information manually. Such an exercise could be carried out only at a disproportionate cost.

Section 193 deals with the exemption from income tax on scholarship income.

Section 484 deals with the relief for personal and corporate gifts for education in the arts.

Section 764 deals with the relief for payments to Irish universities or other bodies approved by the Minister for Finance to undertake scientific research. The person making the payment must be carrying on a trade.

Section 767 deals with the relief for payments to universities and other approved bodies for research in, or teaching of, certain approved subjects. The person making the payment must be carrying on a trade or profession.

Section 792 deals with the relief for covenants to universities or colleges for research. The relief is available for personal (subject to limits) and corporate covenants. The current estimate of the cost of corporate donations in 1997-8 is £0.7 million, in respect of 59 companies. These figures are provisional and subject to revision.