Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
348. Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Minister for Finance the figures of both successful and unsuccessful applications for the living cities initiative; if he will provide a breakdown of the cost to the Exchequer by city for each of the years 2019, 2020 and 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40160/22]
View answer350. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Finance if he will confirm whether the living city initiative scheme will be extended beyond the current closing date of 31 December 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40192/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 348 and 350 together.
The Living City Initiative (LCI) is a scheme of property tax incentives provided for in sections 372AAA to 372AAD of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. It offers income or corporation tax relief for qualifying expenditure incurred in the refurbishment and conversion of qualifying residential and commercial buildings located within ‘Special Regeneration Areas' in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford.
There are three distinct types of relief available under the Initiative. These are:
- owner-occupier residential relief;
- rented residential relief; and
- commercial or retail relief
Applications are required to be made to the relevant Local Authority under the owner-occupier and rented residential elements of the LCI scheme. Applications to the local authority are not required to be made under the commercial element of the scheme.
Revenue obtains information from the Local Authorities in respect to the total number of applications received by them. Based on the most recent information received by Revenue, the number of total applications per eligible city since the introduction of the scheme are as follows:
|
Local Authority |
Number of applications |
|
Cork |
111 |
|
Dublin |
176 |
|
Galway |
<10 |
|
Kilkenny |
18 |
|
Limerick |
37 |
|
Waterford |
70 |
It is not possible to break these applications down by year due to the low number of claimants and the need to protect taxpayer confidentiality. It is also not possible, with the data provided to Revenue, to break these applications down into successful and unsuccessful applications.In relation to a breakdown of the tax cost by property location, I am advised by Revenue that, due to the low number of claimants and the need to protect taxpayer confidentiality, it is not possible to provide a breakdown by property location. However, the Deputy will wish to note that information in relation to the overall cost of the scheme is available on the Revenue website for the years 2013 to 2018, the latest year for which fully analysed data are available, at
www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/tax-expenditures/property-reliefs.pdf.
The data for the scheme, to the extent that they are available, are set out below:
Living City Initiative
|
Tax Year |
Amount claimed (€m) |
Maximum tax cost* (€m) |
Number of claimants |
|
2018 |
0.5 |
0.2 |
27 |
|
2017 |
0.4 |
0.2 |
23 |
|
2016 |
0.5 |
0.2 |
15 |
|
2015 |
0.5 |
0.2 |
13 |
|
2014 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
N/A |
|
2013 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
N/A |
*assumed at 40% for IT and 12.5% for CT.
The LCI is due to sunset on 31 December 2022 and a review of the Initiative is currently being undertaken by my Department. Ultimately, the future of the LCI beyond its current sunset date is a matter that will fall to be considered by Government in the light of the findings of this review and in the context of the Budget 2023 and Finance Bill 2022 process.
