Vol. 512 No. 6
69 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Finance the steps, if any, he will take to implement the commitment given in the review of An Action Programme for the Millennium to remove the low paid from the tax net; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26896/99]
As stated in the review of An Action Programme for the Millennium, the Government aims to complete the implementation of the specific and ambitious aims as set out in the programme, through a balanced strategy of removing more of the low paid from the tax net altogether, by reducing tax rates and by ensuring that a large majority of taxpayers are subject to no more than the standard rate of tax.
This budget has made significant inroads into achieving these aims, including the removal of low paid from the tax net altogether. The personal taxation measures announced on budget day will remove almost 50,000, including 10,000 elderly tax payers from the tax net. The £3,000 allowance for stay-at-home spouses which I announced on December 8 will remove a further 23,000 one earner married couples from the tax net, who would otherwise have been in the tax net, giving a total of some 73,000 taxpayers who will now be exempted from tax as a result of these measures. Over the course of the three budgets to date, 1998 to 2000, this Government will have removed almost 176,000 taxpayers from the tax net. This compares with a figure of 38,000 over the previous three budgets from 1995 to 1997.
