Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 October 2017
66. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Finance the progress made with regards to the €130 million identified from compliance measures in budget 2017 (details supplied); the outcomes to date for each of the headings; the figure for compliance measures in budget 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44735/17]
View answerRevenue’s Comprehensive Review of Expenditure 2014 noted that Revenue staffing levels had reduced by 13% since 2008 and that by increasing resources additional revenue yield could be achieved. In recognition of this, the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Budgets provided for an increase of 266 (126, 50 and 90 respectively) in additional staffing resources for Revenue to deal with a wide variety of requirements across audit and compliance functions, debt management functions, LPT, international tax and Brexit. I have again provided for additional staffing in Revenue in this year’s Budget.
Budget 2017 specified a number of compliance measures: amendments in relation to Section 110 and fund changes (projected yield of €50 million), tackling offshore tax evasion (€30 million) and increased resources for Revenue to confront non-compliance (€50 million). It is too early to accurately assess the impact of, or collection under, these headings for 2017. This will not be possible until after the end of the year. However, based on evidence to date, I am advised that Revenue expect the target will be exceeded. This includes €79 million collected from disclosures in relation to offshore assets. Revenue will undertake detailed analysis of the Budget 2017 measures when data are available.
Budget 2018 includes an additional €100 million to be raised from three compliance measures, in relation to employer PAYE compliance (€50 million), eCommerce / online business compliance (€30 million) and tax avoidance and base erosion capacity (€20 million). To support delivery of these measures, in the estimates for 2018 Revenue has been allocated an additional €7m for extra staffing and ICT enhancements.
As noted, Budget 2016 also included similar compliance measures that were projected at the time of the Budget (October 2015) to yield an additional €75 million to the Exchequer in 2016. Revenue has recently published analysis
https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/research/budget-2016-compliance-measures.pdf
This confirms the estimates of yield for the measures have been delivered and the target of €75 million exceeded. Conservative estimates show the measures in total yielded between €120 million and €150 million in the year. Revenue received an additional funding allocation of €3 million in 2016 to increase staff resources and assist in the delivery of the compliance measures.
