Tax Code.

Thursday, 6 October 2005

Questions (161)

Dan Boyle

Question:

153 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Finance the number of individuals and qualifying companies who have been granted tax relief under the seaside resort scheme since the inception of the scheme in 1995; the amounts of relief granted and the locations where such relief was applied. [27296/05]

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Written answers

Minister for Finance (Mr. Cowen)

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that they are not in a position to provide the information required in relation to the seaside resort scheme. This is because the normal self-assessment tax return forms do not distinguish between capital allowances claimed in respect of seaside resort schemes from those claimed in respect of other buildings entitled to capital allowances.

As part of ongoing commitments to improve the quality of information available on the costs of tax expenditures generally, the Revenue Commissioners have introduced a number of changes to certain tax forms which will yield additional information regarding the cost of various reliefs and the number of taxpayers availing of them. Provisions were included in the Finance Act 2004 to underpin these changes. This will provide better data in this area and enable fuller estimates of the tax foregone to be made over time. However, on the basis of indicative information it is tentatively estimated by Revenue, on the basis of certain assumptions, that the amount of qualifying expenditure and tax cost broken down by resort could be as follows.

Resort	Qualifying Expenditure	Estimated Tax Cost
	€m	€m
Clogherhead	5	2.5
Laytown/Bettystown/Mosney	22	8.9
Courtown	141	52.0
Arklow (UDC area)	19	7.6
Kilkee	67	25.0
Lahinch	35	13.0
Youghal	123	46.0
Clonakilty	28	10.0
Ballybunion	16	6.4
Tramore	58	22.0
Westport	65	24.0
Achill	43	16.5
Enniscrone	60	23.0
Bundoran	103	38.4
Salthill	65	24.0
Total	851	319.0

Any apparent discrepancies in totals are due to rounding of constituent figures.