Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 October 2012
15. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Finance his views on whether the pension fund levy has contributed to the difficulties faced by many pension schemes in meeting funding standards issued by the pensions board; if he is considering reviewing the levy in view of this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42291/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe chargeable persons for the pension fund levy are the trustees or other persons (including insurance companies) with responsibility for the management of the assets of pension schemes or plans.
The payment of the levy is treated as a necessary expense of a pension scheme and the trustees or insurer, as appropriate, are entitled (where they decide to do so) to adjust current or prospective benefits payable under a scheme to take account of the levy. It is up to the trustees to decide whether and how the levy should be passed on and who should be impacted and to what extent, given the particular circumstances of the pension schemes for which they are responsible.
Where, for example, a decision is taken by the trustees of a funded Defined Benefit (DB) scheme to pass on the impact of the pension fund levy to scheme members as outlined above then the impact on the scheme in terms of meeting the minimum funding standards would be neutral.
As I understand the position, the trustees of many funded DB schemes are still in the process of considering their plans for dealing with the minimum funding standards recently issued by the Pensions Board. While I am conscious that pension schemes may have to address a number of difficult issues in meeting these requirements, I would not consider, in all the circumstances, the temporary stamp duty levy of 0.6% to be significant in this context.
In line with standard practice and in common with other tax measures, the operation of the pension fund levy will be reviewed by me in the context of the Budget and Finance Bill.
