Godfrey Timmins
Ceist:52 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Finance the estimated amount of money that has come back into the country as a result of the last tax amnesty; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Tax Amnesty.
Under the special statutory confidentiality arrangements which apply in relation to the 15 per cent incentive amnesty, the chief special collector may only supply certain information to me and this only in the form of aggregates of the total amount of the declared amounts, the total amount of settlement amounts, the total amount of value-added tax remitted to the chief special collector and the total numbers of individuals who remitted amounts to the chief special collector. In these circumstances, even if the information requested were available to him — which it would not be — the chief special collector could not disclose the amount of payments made to him deriving from a particular source.
In the case of the general amnesty, the bulk of tax payments received were for tax liabilities already on record but no information is available as to what extent funds were repatriated from overseas to discharge them. I am not, therefore, in a position to supply the information requested by the Deputy. I can, however, inform the House that while some of the payments received under both amnesties are still being processed, it can now be estimated with confidence that the total amount of tax paid under the two amnesties was about £259 million, of which some £12 million was paid in 1993. The total amount remitted under the 15 per cent incentive amnesty is estimated to be £183.5 million in respect of declared amounts of income and gains.
Associated payments of value added tax amounting to about £15 million were also made to the chief special collector. Thus, in all, an estimated £198.5 million was paid over to the chief special collector by some 36,500 individuals. The balance of the amnesty payments — nearly £61 million — related to the general amnesty.
It will be clear from the significant figures which I have given for the estimated receipts, which are about £19 million ahead of what was anticipated at budget time, that the outcome of the amnesty scheme has been very satisfactory.