Ciarán Cuffe
Question:110 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Finance if he will consider introducing a differential stamp duty on house sales to favour energy efficient properties. [24786/04]
View answerWednesday, 13 October 2004
Questions (109, 110)
Written answers
I am informed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government that new buildings commenced since 1 June 1992 must, by law, comply with mandatory thermal performance and insulation standards under part L of building regulations made by that Minister. I am also informed that the relevant standards are periodically updated and are now among the highest in the EU.
The EU directive on the energy performance of buildings, 2002/91/EC of 16 December 2002, requires that no later than 1 January 2009, all new buildings, and all existing buildings when offered for sale or letting, must be accompanied by an energy performance certificate. A low energy performance rating is expected to impact on the marketability of the property involved, depending on overall market conditions. This is expected to provide some incentive for landlords and vendors to improve the energy performance of buildings before placing them on the market.
The introduction of a stamp duty incentive could be quite complex to operate in practice if it were implemented. Stamp duty is a very efficient tax from the point of view of administrative costs, and such complex proposals could run counter to the current administration of the tax.
Ciarán Cuffe
Question:111 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Finance the estimate for the total tax foregone through tax incentives allocated to the developers of new build and refurbished buildings over the past ten years. [24793/04]
View answerTax reliefs have been available for expenditure on the construction, refurbishment and conversion of buildings under a number of schemes over the past ten years such as the area based renewal schemes, which include the urban, rural and town renewal schemes and the living over the shop scheme, as well as other objective specific schemes, which include relief for investment in park and ride facilities, student accommodation, private hospitals and nursing homes.
Details of tax relief claimed for investment in these schemes are not, at present, captured by the office of the Revenue Commissioners in such a way as to provide a specific basis for compiling estimates of the total annual cost to the Exchequer. Claims for these reliefs are aggregated in tax returns with other claims, such as with industrial buildings allowances generally or with other capital allowances, and do not distinguish between the reliefs claimed in respect of the different schemes.
My Department has been working closely with the Revenue Commissioners to examine how information capture could be improved in this and other areas. I am also conscious that capturing additional information on tax return forms must be considered in the context of not overburdening compliant taxpayers. The Revenue Commissioners will be introducing a number of changes to the forms relating to the annual return of income in respect of the tax year 2004. Provisions were included in Finance Act 2004 to underpin these changes which will yield additional information regarding the cost of various tax reliefs including those in the property area.