Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 June 2020
120. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the estimated revenue that would be raised from a reinstatement of an 80% windfall tax on lands rezoned for housing purposes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11452/20]
View answerI assume the Deputy is referring to the 80% Windfall Tax which applied to certain disposals of land from 30 October 2009 to 31 December 2014.
The National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 amended the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 by providing for an 80% windfall tax on profits or gains arising from disposals of development land, to the extent that those gains were attributable to a relevant planning decision. Profits or gains from these activities that were not attributable to a relevant planning decision were taxed in the normal way. Section 31 of Finance Act 2014 repealed the 80% tax rate on these profits or gains with effect from 1 January 2015. Such sales now attract the 33% rate of Capital Gains Tax.
I am advised by Revenue that there is no basis to provide an estimate of the yield that would arise to the Exchequer from the reintroduction of this tax. Additionally, based on information provided in Income Tax returns and Corporation Tax returns for the years 2010 to 2014, there is no record of any such profits or gains having been returned when the tax was in force.
The Deputy may be interested to know that, at the time, the policy rationale behind the introduction of windfall gains was primarily to discourage overheating of the property market by way of speculative transactions involving rezoned land rather than as a revenue raising measure.
