Vol. 518 No. 6
259 Mr. Farrelly asked the Minister for Finance the number of people who availed of the two separate tax amnesties introduced in the 1990's; the number of people who paid (i) between £1,000 and £50,000, (ii) between £50,000 and £100,000 and (iii) above £500,000; if he will outline the rate of tax paid by the individuals concerned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12874/00]
The Waiver of Certain Tax, Interest and Penalties Act, 1993, provided for two separate amnesty schemes, namely, an incentive amnesty under which, subject to compliance with specified conditions, certain liabilities to income tax and capital gains tax, together with interest and penalties, could be discharged by payment of 15% of the underlying income or gains on a confidential basis to the chief special collector established under the Act; and a general amnesty under which other tax arrears had to be paid in full with remission only for interest and penalties. The actual rate of tax applicable to the payments made under the general amnesty depended on the nature of the tax and the rate applicable in relation to that tax at the time the liability originally arose.
The aggregate amount of tax and levies remitted to the chief special collector under the 15% incentive amnesty is £185.4 million on behalf of 38,400 individuals, the latest available estimate. This represents an average payment of £4,828 per person. Under the special statutory confidentiality arrangements which apply in relation to the 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 paid under the incentive amnesty, the total amount of value-added tax remitted to the chief special collector and the total number of individuals who remitted amounts to the chief special collector. In these circumstances it is not possible for me to provide the breakdown requested by the Deputy.
The total yield of tax, PRSI and levies under the general amnesty, including £14.1 million in value-added tax paid to the chief special collector, is estimated at close on £76 million. It is not possible to provide the breakdown requested by the Deputy in respect of the full amount received under the general amnesty because detailed separate figures on numbers of individuals and companies availing of the general amnesty were not maintained by the Collector-General.
However, I understand that an analysis of the £76 million carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General suggested that this was received from 15,055 taxpayers indicating an average yield of £5,048 per taxpayer. A more detailed breakdown of payments totalling £46.8 million was included in the annual report for 1994 of the Comptroller and Auditor General and is reproduced as follows:
|
Range££ |
No. of Cases |
% of Cases |
Amount£ |
% of Amount Received |
|
0 – 1,000 |
3,479 |
46.61 |
1,430,258 |
3.05 |
|
1,000 – 5,000 |
2,566 |
34.38 |
6,003,471 |
12.82 |
|
5,000 – 25,000 |
1,151 |
15.42 |
12,765,397 |
27.24 |
|
25,000 – 50,000 |
154 |
2.06 |
5,363,425 |
11.45 |
|
50,000 – 100,000 |
70 |
0.94 |
4,805,761 |
10.26 |
|
100,000 – 500,000 |
34 |
0.46 |
6,650,185 |
14.19 |
|
500,000 – 1,000,000 |
7 |
0.09 |
4,767,219 |
10.17 |
|
1,000,000 – 2,000,000 |
3 |
0.04 |
5,070,962 |
10.82 |
|
Total |
7,464 |
100 |
46,856,678 |
100 |
