Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2017
140. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Finance if there are incentives for landowners to lease their grounds to sports clubs on a long-term basis; if not, his plans to introduce such measures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6802/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am advised that there are currently no tax incentives for landowners to lease land to sports clubs on a long term basis. There is a similar incentive, however, which provides tax relief for certain income from the long term leasing of agricultural land under Section 664 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. That tax relief has a very specific policy aim of accelerating land mobility and productivity through making additional agricultural land available to farmers on a medium to long term basis for husbandry purposes.
The Deputy will note that my Department has published guidelines for tax expenditure evaluation which need to be considered in relation to any new proposals for tax expenditures. Some of the key evaluation questions that need to be addressed as part of such evaluations are:
(i) What objective does the tax expenditure aim to achieve?
(ii) What market failure is being addressed?
(iii) Is a tax expenditure the best approach to address the market failure?
(iv) What economic effect is the tax expenditure likely to have?
(v) How much is it expected to cost?
Having regard to the above questions, my initial view is that it would be difficult to justify the provision of a tax relief for the type of land leasing suggested by the Deputy.
