Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2014
215. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form the total annual number of relevant contract tax registered regarding the construction sector and the number of all other RCTs between 2007 and 2014. [46181/14]
View answer216. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form the number of instances of fraud and-or non-compliance regarding relevant contract tax investigated by the Revenue Commissioners between 2007 and 2014. [46182/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 215 and 216 together.
I have provided the Deputy with the number of sub-contractors registered in the State for Relevant Contracts Tax (RCT) for the years 2010 to 2014 in my reply to Question No. 202 (ref. 45172/14) on 25 November 2014.
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the total number of contractors, i.e. principal and sub-contractors operating within the RCT sector for the years 2007 to 2014 are detailed in the following table.
The electronic Relevant Contracts Tax system went live in 2012 and the information provided from 2012 onwards relates to the number of active principal and sub-contractors who received a payment that falls within the RCT regime. For years prior to 2012, the figures represent the number of active registrations for those years.
The reason for the large variation in the numbers before 2012 is that a significant amount of work was done to update the RCT register upon the introduction of the electronic Relevant Contracts Tax system.
In the time available, I am informed that the Commissioners are not in a position to provide a breakdown of the numbers based on the distribution between the three sectors that are subject to RCT, namely construction, forestry and meat processing.
|
YEAR |
RCT registrations / active contractors (principals and sub-contractors) |
|
2007 |
139,664 |
|
2008 |
126,736 |
|
2009 |
121,982 |
|
2010 |
116,302 |
|
2011 |
107,358 |
|
2012 |
58,855 |
|
2013 |
62,443 |
|
2014 to 16/11/14 |
65,194 |
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that businesses have a number of tax obligations including obligations relating to tax returns, the payment of tax on the profits of the business, the VAT system, the PAYE system and, where appropriate, the electronic Relevant Contracts Tax (eRCT) system. In the course of a Revenue compliance intervention, a Revenue officer may investigate matters pertaining to those obligations and, where necessary, seek the relevant outstanding taxes, interest on late payment of tax and relevant penalties.
As to the Deputy's second question, I am further informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the amount of Relevant Contracts Tax (RCT) collected during the tax years 2010 to 2013 (final figures for 2014 not yet available) from Revenue interventions relating to non-compliance with obligations under the RCT legislation was as follows.
|
Year |
Yield |
Number of cases |
|
2007 |
€30,911,015 |
821 |
|
2008 |
€38,293,722 |
922 |
|
2009 |
€32,242,453 |
935 |
|
2010 |
€16,926,470 |
632 |
|
2011 |
€14,283,431 |
472 |
|
2012 |
€11,413,141 |
807 |
|
2013 |
€20,049,285 |
2,399 |
This yield relates to instances of principal contractors being liable to account to Revenue for RCT that should have been deducted from payments made by such principals under relevant contracts.
The downward trends for 2010 and 2011 obviously reflect the state of the construction sector at that time whereas the increase in activity in 2013 reflects Revenue's renewed focus on the construction sector.
If the Deputy has any information as regards tax evasion or abuses of the tax systems, he may pass that information to my officials who will forward it to the Revenue Commissioners.
