Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 3 May 2001

Vol. 535 No. 3

Written Answers - Taxi Licences.

Noel Ahern

Question:

107 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Finance if there is any record or data as to whether additional taxi plates issued in the past six months since deregulation are being used full-time or part-time; if the records of the Revenue Commissioners confirm that all new plate holders are registered for tax purposes; and if he will make a statement on the matter in view of the assertion that many of the new plate holders who work on a part-time basis are not declaring an income from taxi work. [12712/01]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

There is no data available as to whether the new plate holders are being used part-time or full-time.

However, I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that Revenue obtains details annually of taxi and hackney plates issued by local authorities. These are matched against the Revenue records and any unassessed persons are dealt with as appropriate. From 1990 to date a total of 943 taxi and hackney plate holders not on Revenue record were detected.

Arrangements will be made as usual to obtain details of the new taxi plates issued this year. It is intended that a project will be carried out to check the tax registration of the new plate holders in due course. It should be noted that persons commencing a taxi business as a result of the recent issue of taxi plates are not required to make tax returns of the profits until October 2002. Taxi and hackney plate holders are targeted in the same way as other non-filers for appropriate action by Revenue to ensure that the returns are made and, where appropriate, are subject to audit and investigation programmes to ensure compliance with tax obligations .