Pearse Doherty
Question:86. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the cost of abolishing the €100 administration fee deducted from repayable vehicle registration tax when importing a car. [13876/16]
View answerVehicle Registration
Questions (86)
Written answers
I am advised by Revenue that, assuming a modest year-on-year growth in the value and number of vehicles taken out of the State under the Export Repayment Scheme, the full year cost of abolishing the fee would be in the region of €160,000. The fee assists with the costs of administering the Scheme.
Tax Code
Questions (87, 88)
Pearse Doherty
Question:87. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the gains in revenue from the cumulative effect of six proposed measures (details supplied). [13880/16]
View answerPearse Doherty
Question:88. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the gains in revenue from the cumulative effect of six proposed measures (details supplied). [13881/16]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 87 and 88 together.
I assume the Deputy's questions refer to the measure to limit the use of certain tax reliefs and exemptions (known as 'specified reliefs') by high-income individuals introduced in the 2006 and 2007 Finance Acts (the restriction was subsequently modified in later Finance Acts).
As the Deputy may be aware, Revenue publishes an annual report on the functioning of the restriction. These reports are available at: http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/other.html#reports.
I am advised by Revenue that the data required to provide a definitive estimate of the yield from the totality of measures outlined by the Deputy is not available. Form RR1s, which must be returned in respect of the use of specified reliefs, are not available for the additional cases who would be newly subject to the relief restrictions under proposals (iii), (iv) and (v) concerning the computation of the unrestricted amount of specified reliefs, vis the reduction of the Relief Threshold Amount from €80,000 to either €35,000 or €30,000 and the reduction of the alternate Adjusted Income criteria from 20% to 15% or the inclusion of additional reliefs. Nor are the requisite data in respect of Trusts available to enable the yield from proposal (vi) to be estimated.
In relation to proposals (i) and (ii) in respect of the first question, based on personal income tax returns filed for the year 2013, the latest year for which data are available, it is tentatively estimated that reducing the entry level adjusted income threshold to €120,000 and the full restriction level to €200,000, would generate an additional yield in the order of €41 million.
In relation to proposals (i) and (ii) in respect of the second question, based on personal income tax returns filed for the year 2013, the latest year for which data are available, it is tentatively estimated that reducing the entry level adjusted income threshold to €110,000 and the full restriction level to €200,000, would generate an additional yield in the order of €43 million.
It should be noted that these estimates take no account of any changes in taxpayer behaviour.
Tax Code
Questions (89)
Pearse Doherty
Question:89. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the revenue that would be generated by reducing the standard fund threshold from €2 million to €1.7 million, to €1.5 million, to €1.3 million and to €1 million. [13882/16]
View answerWritten answers
The Standard Fund Threshold (SFT) is the maximum allowable pension fund on retirement for tax purposes which was introduced in Budget and Finance Act 2006 to prevent over-funding of pensions through tax-relieved arrangements. The threshold was initially set at €5 million, which was subsequently reduced to €2.3 million in 2010 and further reduced in Budget 2014 and Finance (No 2) Act 2013 to €2 million with effect from 1 January 2014.
Information on the numbers and values of individual pension funds or on individual accrued benefits in pension schemes are not generally required to be supplied to either the Revenue Commissioners or to my Department by the administrators of pension schemes and personal pension arrangements. The estimate of the yield expected to arise from the changes to the SFT regime introduced in Budget 2014 and Finance (No 2) Act 2013 referred to above was arrived at following considerable internal work over a period by my Department involving, among other things, data gathering and consultation with private sector sources relating to the specific changes to be made. There is no readily available underlying data or methodology on which to base reliable estimates of the revenue that would arise from further changes to the SFT of the scale envisaged in the question.
Revenue Commissioners Resources
Questions (90)
Pearse Doherty
Question:90. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the revenue that would be raised by increasing the Revenue Commissioners personnel by 125 qualified persons to target tax evasion and black market activity. [13883/16]
View answerWritten answers
I am advised by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners that Revenue's Comprehensive Review of Expenditure 2014 estimated that by increasing audit staffing resources by c. 100 staff an additional exchequer yield of €50 million per annum could be achieved. It estimated that by increasing staff on compliance projects such as oils, tobacco and alcohol by 100 could raise €20 million per annum. It also estimated that increasing staffing on investigations by 20 staff could achieve exchequer savings of €12 million per annum.
In that context Budget 2015 and Budget 2016 provided for an increase of 176 (126 and 50) in additional resources to deal with a wide variety of staffing requirements across audit and compliance functions, debt management functions, international tax, etc.
Revenue appointed over 400 staff from open competitions in 2015, these staff were mainly deployed on Local Property Tax support, International Tax and on compliance interventions. Revenue has appointed over 230 staff to date in 2016 from open recruitment. The recruitment in 2015 and to date in 2016 has been at all levels and across a diverse range of specialist skills areas such as tax and legal professionals, data analysts, economists and information technology experts.
It should be noted that the recruitment of staff and their training and development is addressed as part of an overall workforce planning process in Revenue. The investment in the training and development of a Revenue auditor or investigator can take up to three years, depending on previous relevant experience. The capacity to recruit and develop Revenue staff needs to be addressed in a coordinated fashion.
Property Tax
Questions (91)
Pearse Doherty
Question:91. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the net cost of abolishing the local property tax. [13884/16]
View answerWritten answers
I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the Local Property Tax (LPT) is forecast to collect €440 million in 2016. These receipts would be lost if LPT was abolished. It should be borne in mind that under the fiscal rules of the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, this policy choice would use up available fiscal space unless offset by either discretionary revenue increases or expenditure reductions elsewhere.
Budget 2016
Questions (92)
Pearse Doherty
Question:92. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the details of the net effect of measures carried over for a year as a result of budget 2016, in tabular form. [13885/16]
View answerWritten answers
I assume the Deputy is referring to the carryover effect of Budget 2016 tax measures. It was estimated that there would be a total negative carryover into 2017 as a result of Budget 2016 tax measures in the region of €192 million. It should be noted that while the following table sets out the carryover effect of Budget 2016 measures, it also includes measures announced in Budget 2016, which will take effect in 2017, such as the extension of the levy of financial institutions.
|
Tax-Head |
Carryover effect €m |
|
Income Tax |
-292 |
|
PRSI |
-3 |
|
Corporation Tax |
-37 |
|
Capital Gains Tax |
-2 |
|
Capital Acquisition Tax |
-7 |
|
Stamp Duty |
+149 |
|
Total |
-192 |
I should point out that the exact impacts of carryover will be reviewed as part of the normal Budgetary process, as there are a lot of moving parts to be considered, such as economic growth, take up of various schemes and specific tax relevant factors, which could impact on the expected return from the measures.