Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 20 Nov 1996

Vol. 471 No. 7

Written Answers. - Tax Reliefs.

Tony Gregory

Ceist:

117 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Finance the estimated cost in terms of tax revenue foregone in 1995 and 1996 in respect of relief for purchase of shares, relief for Cospóir, urban renewal relief, relief for income from qualifying shipping trades, relief for investment in films, relief for expenditure on certain buildings in designated areas, relief for certain investments, section 23 relief and relief for investment in corporate trades. [21590/96]

Minister for Finance (Mr. Quinn)

The relevant information is available in respect of income tax years 1995-96 and 1996-97, except where otherwise indicated, and is as follows:

Allowance/Relief	1995-96	1996-97
	£m	£m
Purchase of shares (1)	Not available	Not available
Cospóir (2)	—	—
Urban renewal (3)	68 (1995)	Not available
Income from qualifying shipping trades (4)	2 (1994-95)	Not available
Investment in films (5)	18.1	2.1
Expenditure on certain buildings in designated areas	Included with urban renewal
Certain investments	See note (6)
Rented residential accommodation (“Section 23”) (7)	17.6 (1993)	Not available
Investment in corporate trades (“BES”) (8)	37.1	18.1

These figures are provisional and subject to revision.

(1) Statistics are not available which would enable the precise information requested by the Deputy to be provided in respect of share purchase schemes qualifying for tax relief under the provisions of section 12 of the Finance Act, 1986. It is tentatively estimated that share purchases by employees over the period from 1987 to date, relating to income tax years 1986-87 to 1994-95, were accorded tax relief at an appropriate cost to the Exchequer of £1.9 million.

(2) Cospóir ceased to function in 1995.

(3) The cost relates to the relief for capital allowances in respect of all non-residential urban renewal projects. No estimate is available for the cost of other aspects of this scheme except for the estimated cost of section 23 relief. See footnote (7) below.

(4) The figure in the table is the estimated cost of extending the 10 per cent rate of corporation tax for shipping companies in respect of accounting periods ending between 1 April 1994 and 31 March 1995. The estimated cost of any other reliefs availed of by the shipping trade is not available.

(5) These figures are based on applications approved up to 13 November 1996 for both years and are subject to adjustment on receipt of further applications, especially in respect of the most recent year.

(6) It is not clear what other investments the Deputy may have in mind.

(7) This is the cost in 1993, the latest year for which the figures are available, for both the nationwide scheme which terminated in July 1992 as well as the urban renewal element of the scheme.

(8) These figures are based on applications approved up to 5 April 1996 in respect of 1995-96 and up to 14 November 1996 in respect of 1996-97. The 1996-97 figures are subject to adjustment on receipt of further applications.