asked the Minister for Finance the amounts received in 1988 to date in respect of (a) health contribution receipts and (b) PRSI receipts from (a) farmers and (b) other self-employed.
Written Answers. - Health Contribution and PRSI Receipts.
47.
The health boards are responsible for collecting health contributions from full-time farmers for the years up to and including the year ended 5 April 1984. The Revenue Commissioners are responsible for collecting them from part-time farmers and other self-employed persons for those years and from all farmers and self-employed for subsequent years.
I am informed by the Department of Health that no estimate is as yet available of the amount received by the health boards in the period 1 January 1988 to 31 May 1988. I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the amount received by them in the period 1 January 1988 to 31 May 1988 in respect of health contributions was £0.6 million in the case of farmers and £2.1 million in the case of other self-employed persons.
No social insurance contributions had been received at 31 May 1988 from farmers or other self-employed persons apart from some proprietary company directors. Self-employed persons are being brought into the social insurance system for the first time for the tax year 1988-89. Payment is due on or before 1 October 1988 and payments are not expected in any appreciable number of cases before September 1988. The social insurance liability of some proprietary company directors, who are regarded as self-employed persons, is being collected under the PAYE-PRSI system. Thus, social insurance payments in respect of these persons are being made on a monthly basis as from 6 April 1988. The commissioners cannot give the total of such payments to date as they are not distinguished from social insurance payments made in respect of other persons in the PAYE-PRSI system.
Finally, I should mention that some self-employed persons will be liable to pay social insurance contributions at a flat rate, amounting to £104 per contribution year, under collection arrangements separate from the income tax system. As these arrangements have not yet come into operation, no amount has been collected to date under flat rate contributions.