(for Mr. Flinn) asked the Minister for Finance what are the costs of income tax collection and administration for the years 1923-24 and subsequent years under the following heads:—(a) Fees and remuneration paid to the Law Officers for services in connection with income and super-tax; (b) the salaries, expenses and all charges of the Revenue Commissioners in relation to income tax matters; (c) the salaries, expenses and all charges for the Special Commissioners for income tax; (d) the salaries, fees, emoluments, allowances, and all expenses of the Inspectors of Taxes; (e) the total expenses of the various offices of the Inspectors covering the salaries of their staffs, wages of attendants, insurance, carriage of documents, postage, telephones, and all expenses per year; (f) the fees, poundage, remuneration, allowances or otherwise paid to Collectors of Taxes in the State; (g) the heads in detail of annual expenses as follows: Stationery chargeable for income and super-tax uses. postage likewise chargeable, rents paid, including apportioned rents of Government Offices otherwise occupied.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - INCOME TAX ADMINISTRATION.
Accounts of expenditure are not kept in accordance with the classification set out in the question. In a large office like that of the Revenue Commissioners, dealing with several heads of revenue, where many officers are necessarily engaged in other work as well as in the administration and collection of income tax and super-tax, it would be almost impossible to segregate the cost appropriate to these taxes from the other expenditure, and such an operation, if attempted in any great detail, would be both tedious and expensive, the result being incommensurate with the outlay. It is considered, therefore, that an estimate for one year made on broad lines will give information sufficiently approximate. For this purpose, the latest year for which complete returns of expenditure are available, viz., 1926-27, has been chosen, and to all items relating solely to the cost of administration and collection of income tax and super-tax there has been added the appropriate share of all other expenditure calculated on the most reliable basis available. The total so arrived at is £268,000 approximately.