I propose to take Questions Nos. 159 to 162, inclusive, 165, 166, 170, and 173 to 178, inclusive, together.
The Revenue Commissioners pre-Budget 2017 Ready Reckoner is available on the Revenue Statistics webpage at http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/index.html.
In relation to the Deputy's questions, this Ready Reckoner shows a wide range of detailed information, including the estimated cost to the Exchequer of changes to the Universal Social Charge (USC), Income Tax rates and credits, the Earned Income Tax credit, the Home Carer credit, DIRT, Capital Gains Tax and Excise. While the Ready Reckoner does not show all of the specific costings requested by the Deputy, others can be estimated from those shown on a pro-rata or straight line basis with those displayed in the Reckoner.
The estimates for Income Tax and USC in the Ready Reckoner have been generated by reference to 2017 incomes as calculated on the basis of actual data for the year 2014, the latest year for which returns are available, adjusted as necessary for income, self-employment and employment trends in the interim. The estimates are provisional and may be revised.
I am advised that Revenue has recently updated the Ready Reckoner to a pre-Budget 2017 basis. The base year Tax Modeller dataset used to generate the Ready Reckoner has been updated from 2013 to 2014, the latest year for which returns are now available. In addition, the reference year for which costs / yields are estimated, after adjustments for income, self-employment and employment trends in the interim, has been updated from 2016 to 2017.
In advance of the updating of the model this year, an analysis of the First Year/Full Year apportionment of costs was also undertaken to ensure the estimated apportionment is as accurate as possible. It should be noted that this revision does not impact on the total cost/yield of a measure, it only changes the apportionment of the Exchequer impact over the first and second years in which a measure comes into effect.