The Finance Bill sets out the arrangements the Dáil has made for raising the moneys required to defray the cost of the Central Fund and the Supply Services for the coming year. In considering the expenditure during that period it was thought advisable to segregate the items under two heads. The first deals with what I might describe as the normal expenditure constituting a normal Budget to meet the ordinary expenses of government in a normal year. The second head covers the special provision which the Government felt should be made in the present emergency to relieve distress and to create employment. Under a normal Budget the total amount to be provided would be £27,064,000, which includes, first of all, the estimates as they were framed by our predecessors for supply purposes and, in addition, a sum of £270,000 which will be required to finance the Old Age Pensions Bill, which I understand the House is shortly to consider, and a Military Wounds and Disability Pensions Bill, which the Minister for Defence will introduce in the coming session. On the estimated income it was found that on the basis of the previous taxation we should have a tax revenue of £19,893,000 and a non-tax revenue of £3,417,000, making a total receipt of £23,310,000 as contrasted with an actual receipt for the previous year of £25,496,419. As against this we should have an expenditure under a normal Budget of £27,064,000, leaving us with a substantial deficit.
It is proposed to make good this deficit in the following way:—It is proposed to provide £137,000, which is necessary to meet the payments which will fall due in respect of Property Losses Compensation and to complete the repayment of the Dáil Eireann internal loan, by borrowing. I think no person will contest that, in view of the nature of the expenditure, it is quite legitimate to provide the money in that way. By reductions in salaries, economies in administration and by making a smaller allowance even than usual for over-estimation in the estimates, we felt it would be quite safe to set aside, as against the expenditure, the sum of £679,535, leaving a net sum of £26,247,365 to be provided out of taxation and out of normal non-tax revenue.
As I have already informed the House, the estimated receipts from non-tax and tax revenue for the current year total only £23,310,000. That left us, therefore, on a normal Budget, a deficit of £2,950,250 which had to be provided for out of taxation. In addition to that, the Government also propose on the emergency side of the Budget to raise by special taxes the sum of £1,000,000. It was felt that so far as the balance of £1,500,000 which we were setting aside to meet present distress and to create employment was concerned, of that sum £550,000, representing the normal provision for the Local Loans Fund, could be transferred from the normal Budget and that the remaining £1,000,000 would be raised by borrowing on the security of the Road Fund, as it was mainly intended to spend that upon road construction. The addition of the £1,000,000, which is to be provided for the emergency Budget, to what has to be provided for the normal Budget, makes it imperative to impose this year additional taxation amounting to £3,950,250. It is proposed under the Finance Bill which is now before the House to raise that amount in the following way—Inland Revenue, £1,445,000; customs duties imposed under Part II of the Bill and set out in detail in the First and Second Schedules to the Bill, £910,000; adjustments in respect of the sugar tax, beer tax, tea tax, entertainment tax and minor matters, £595,250; special tax on receipts from sweepstakes, £650,000; collection of hitherto undisclosed arrears of excess profits duty and income tax, £350,000.
In connection with the last item, I think it is advisable to say at this stage that, as the House is probably aware, the Government is offering a special concession to those who have a liability to the State in respect of excess profits duty and income-tax—a liability which they have hitherto concealed but which, in the course of time, would be honoured and from which I do not think they could, in any event, hope to escape. The collection of arrears representing undisclosed liability for excess profits duty and income-tax is troublesome and expensive both to the taxpayer and to the State. We hope to obviate that trouble, inconvenience and expense by inducing taxpayers to come forward and make a voluntary disclosure in that regard. I think it is advisable to repeat what I said in the Dáil in this connection. I shall repeat it in exactly the same form, with one alteration in regard to time, which, from the point of view of the taxpayer, may be important:
The concession will be as follows. Any taxpayer, on intimating to the Revenue Commissioners that he desires to avail himself of the benefit of the announcement which I am now making, will be supplied with a form of undertaking. This form must be completed and sent to the Revenue Commissioners not later than the 30th September, 1932.
That is the alteration to which I wish to direct the attention of the House and of the public generally. In the announcement as originally made, the date mentioned was 15th August, 1932. There has been some delay in getting the Finance Bill through the Dáil. To make allowance for that and for the delay which will ensue before the Bill becomes law in the ordinary course, the Government have felt that it is desirable that an extension of time should be given to taxpayers who intend to take advantage of this concession. Accordingly, we are fixing the last date for making disclosure as 30th September, 1932.
On this form, the taxpayer will undertake to furnish the Revenue Commissioners by 31st December, 1932 (or such later date as they may allow) such accounts and information as they consider necessary to enable them to compute correctly the total amount of all duties underpaid, and, where the Commissioners consider such a course necessary, to have the accounts certified by an accountant approved by them. When the undertaking has been satisfactorily carried out, the Revenue Commissioners will accept in full settlement (subject to a minimum which I will explain in a moment) a sum not exceeding 75 per cent. of the total of all duties (income-tax, super tax or sur tax and excess profits duty) underpaid from 1914 (inclusive) to date. There will be no further penalties and no interest will be charged. Prompt payment will be required, but any case in which the taxpayer's present circumstances are such that he cannot pay the full amount so computed without grave hardship will receive special consideration. The concession will be extended to cases at present under review in the Revenue Department in which the Revenue Commissioners have not yet formally notified to the taxpayer or his agent the amount which they are willing to accept in settlement. The minimum duty payable will be the income tax and surtax or super-tax (if any) for which assessment can be now made (i.e. for six years in addition to the current year) together with any such taxes properly payable in respect of assessments already made.
I have felt it necessary, at this stage, again to direct public attention to the concession we are offering. It is anticipated that that concession will enable us to collect £350,000 over and above the amount of income tax and excess profits duty which would be collected in the ordinary way. If our expectations in that regard be realised, we will be able to close the financial year with a surplus of approximately £62,000.