Thomas P. Broughan
Ceist:110 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Finance if he will extend the deadlines for the tax amnesty; and if the Revenue Commissioners have any estimate at this stage of the yield that will accrue from the amnesty.
Written Answers. - Tax Amnesty.
Ned O'Keeffe
Ceist:112 Mr. E. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Finance if he will, in view of the outstanding success of the tax amnesty, in all areas of collection extend the deadline for a further period of 30 days, particularly in view of the late rush by taxpayers and as many of them did not participate earlier and are now finding it difficult to have their financial documents in place for the closing dates; if he will recognise the dilemma of those taxpayers; the number that have participated to date; if any difficulties have arisen; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 110 and 112 together.
I have been advised by the Revenue Commissioners and by tax practitioners, both through their representative bodies and in the course of Revenue seminars, that there has been a late surge of additional interest in the incentive amnesty. This was causing considerable difficulty for professionals in dealing with such a large number of potential applicants before the deadline of 30 November. For this reason, strict adherence to the date set in the legislation may have militated against the outcome of the incentive amnesty.
Accordingly, the Government yesterday decided to extend the deadline for the making of the confidential declarations to the chief special collector to Tuesday, 21 December 1993. Provision for the extended deadline will be made, to apply retrospectively, in next year's Finance Bill. This provision provides an additional three full weeks for practitioners to process applications. It also gives those who may not have fully appreciated the serious consequences of passing up this opportunity to get their tax affairs in order, a reasonable further period in which to fulfil the requirements.
Under the confidentiality arrangements which apply to the incentive amnesty scheme I may obtain only certain information and this only in the form of aggregates. In these circumstances it is not possible to provide estimates at this stage of the number of participants or of the overall yield.