Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2009
167 Deputy Leo Varadkar asked the Minister for Finance his views on changing pension legislation to allow a business person to use the funds within their pension trust to invest within their company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5913/09]
View answerThe sole purpose of an approved retirement scheme is to provide relevant benefits on retirement to the member or members of the scheme. It is to this end that the beneficial tax treatment of contributions to and investment growth in approved pension schemes exists. Moreover, it is the responsibility of pension scheme trustees to ensure that there are sufficient assets in the scheme to pay unexpected benefits, such as on death or ill health early retirement of members.
For these reasons, tax legislation seeks to ensure that the investment transactions of pension schemes are conducted on a commercial "arm's length" basis. It does this by effectively rendering transactions, which are not arm's length, tax inefficient by deeming the amount or value of the pension scheme assets used in such transactions to be a pension payment and, therefore, subject to tax. The Deputy's proposal would run counter to the arm's length principle and I do not propose to change the legislation in the manner put forward.
