Written Answers Nos. 27-36
27. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Minister for Finance the number of civil servants in his Department who are seconded to State agencies or other public bodies and in receipt of a higher duty or acting allowance; the number who have been seconded for more than ten, more than 20 and more than 30 years, respectively; if the higher duty allowance is not pensionable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55767/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to inform the Deputy that, the Dept. of Finance currently has 20 Officers seconded out, with one officer in receipt of Higher Duty/Acting allowance. In this instance, the allowance is pensionable. No Officer currently has been seconded for more than 10, 20 or 30 years.
28. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the number of calls received by the Revenue Commissioners by month from 2017 to date in 2022, in tabular form; the number of calls per category; the average waiting time to be connected to a Revenue official; the number of calls left unanswered or disconnected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55728/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra29. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Revenue Commissioners is currently writing to carers, widow’s pensioners, people on invalidity pensions and other DSP recipients, with no other income sources requesting them to complete income tax return before 31 October 2022 and 16 November 2022 for previous years 2019, 2020 and 2021 due to PAYE underpayments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55729/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra30. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the number of recipients of the temporary wage subsidy scheme who will be expected to pay back tax in 2022 and in 2023, by county in tabular form; the number who had underpayments for 2020 and also received TWSS; the amount of persons with TWSS underpayments; the average TWSS underpayment per person; the total amount of outstanding TWSS under payments; his plans, if any, to scrap the TWSS tax bill for affected workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55730/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 28 to 30, inclusive, together.
Revenue has recently written to over 300,000 individuals who, based on the information available to Revenue, may have overpaid or underpaid tax in some or all of the years 2019 to 2021 inclusive. These letters provide a preliminary tax position, advising the recipients to submit a tax return to claim any additional tax credits or reliefs that they may be due and/or to declare any additional income they may have received. Up to now over 1 million PAYE employees have submitted tax returns in respect of 2019, 930,000 PAYE employees have submitted returns in respect of 2020, and 880,000 PAYE employees have submitted their returns in respect of 2021.
In addition, approximately 90,000 letters were issued in the two-weeks ending on 21 October 2022, and form part of Revenue’s ongoing programme of communications to ensure that taxpayers are aware of their tax position and to ensure that taxpayers are paying the right amount of tax and claiming the tax credits and reliefs to which they are entitled. Based on the Preliminary End of Year Statements, the approximate number of taxpayer units (where a jointly assessed couple is one unit), who may have either underpayments or overpayments and who have not yet submitted a tax return for the relevant year is provided in a table below.
Revenue has advised that a small number of individuals with only DSP income were inadvertently included in the recent communications campaign. In those cases, and where the person’s only source of income is from DSP, they do not need to submit an Income Tax return or take any further action on foot of the letter they have received. Notwithstanding, the specific DSP payments referred to by the Deputy are taxable payments and where the person has additional sources of income, they may have a tax liability.
In relation to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) Revenue have advised that 222,049 taxpayer units who received TWSS payments in 2020 have finalised their tax position by filing their income tax return for 2020. Of those, 124,272 had tax underpayments where, 16,284 have paid the tax due with the remaining 107,988 currently paying the tax underpaid through a reduction in their tax credits from 2022 to 2025 inclusive. Details by county are provided in a table below. The balance of 97,777 PAYE returns resulted in an overpayment.
Where an income tax return is not completed, Revenue may not be aware of any additional credits or reliefs due to the taxpayer. Therefore, it is not possible to provide the final details on the amount of overpaid or underpaid tax as individual taxpayer circumstances differ. A Preliminary End of Year Statement is made available to PAYE taxpayers through the myAccount service after the end of each tax year. This statement sets out each taxpayer’s provisional tax position for that tax year, based on the information available on Revenue records.
Revenue have advised that in addition to the aforementioned taxpayers who have finalised their tax position for 2020, there are 220,184 PAYE taxpayer units who received TWSS, where the Preliminary End of Year statement indicates that they may have underpaid tax, but have yet to file their Income Tax return for 2020. Based on their Preliminary Statements, the tax underpaid in respect of this group is €190.5m with an average preliminary underpayment of €865 which equates to a reduction in tax credits of €216 per year over four years or €4.15 per week.
As the Deputy will appreciate, payments made to employees under the TWSS were regarded as income supports and share the characteristics of income. Other income earners in receipt of comparable “normal wages” are taxable on those wages. In the interest of equity, therefore, payments under the TWSS were subject to income tax and the Universal Social Charge for the employee. While income tax and USC on most income is deducted in real-time as and when the person is paid, the TWSS payments were not taxed in real-time and were instead liable to income tax and USC at the end of 2020. I have no plans to amend the tax treatment of TWSS liabilities.
As the Deputy may also be aware, employers have the option to pay the TWSS liability on behalf of their employees. Some employers have paid this directly to Revenue while others have paid the amount to their employees.
Demand for Revenue’s online engagement channels has steadily increased in the past few years and the current model which combines the facility to self-serve through MyAccount, online contact through MyEnquiries and the Jobs and Pensions phone service reflects both, demand levels from PAYE taxpayers and the need to provide an efficient and cost-effective service. Revenue continuously reviews its service channels on an agile basis to meet demand.
Revenue’s Jobs and Pensions telephone service is currently available from 9:30am to 1:30pm Monday to Friday. Outside of these hours a recorded message advises callers of the location on the Revenue website of where information of particular relevance to PAYE taxpayers is held including informational videos on a range of topics such as how to complete an Income Tax Return. The recorded message also provides information on Revenue’s online ‘myAccount’ facility that enables PAYE taxpayers to view and amend their records as well as information of the online ‘MyEnquiries’ portal through which they can securely submit and track the progress of written enquiries.
Statistics in relation to the Jobs and Pensions Helpline for the period January 2020 to 2022, year to date are provided in a table below. Unfortunately, comparative data is not available prior to 2020 as Revenue realigned its operational structure in 2019 with corresponding changes made to telephony architecture.
31. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Finance if, as part of the retail banking review currently under way by his Department, consideration is being given to reducing the 10% reserve requirement for credit unions, which are now operating current accounts and banking services as a result of the large amount of new customers that they are receiving, due to the exit of banks (details supplied) from Ireland; if his attention has been drawn to the significant difficulties that this 10% requirement is now having for new customers of credit unions who have chosen them as their new banking service given the limits on the amounts of funds allowable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55737/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraOn 23 November last, I published the Terms of Reference for a broad-ranging review of the retail banking sector in Ireland. The Review is being conducted by officials in my Department with assistance from other Government agencies and Departments. At the time of publishing the Terms of Reference, it was confirmed that the Review team would report to me in November 2022.
Although the Credit Union sector were not specifically mentioned in the Terms of Reference, part of the Review will be to consider the level of competition in the retail banking sector and ways to improve it, including the role the Credit Union could play in this regard.
It is important that I highlight that it is the role of the Central Bank, as the independent regulator, to set the minimum regulatory reserve requirement for credit unions. In setting the minimum regulatory reserve requirement, the Central Bank are mindful of the financial resilience of the sector, members confidence and the protection of members' funds. Given the current reserves position of credit unions, the level of the minimum regulatory reserve requirement does not represent an impediment to growth in credit union lending.
On the Review process itself, stakeholders, including members of the public, were invited to make submissions to the Department on issues that fall within the Terms of Reference. These submissions were by way of a public consultation which was launched at the Retail Banking Review dialogue in Tullamore on 16th May. The dialogue was attended by over 100 delegates representing a wide range of organisations, including the retail banks, non-banks, fintech, trade unions, government agencies and departments, the Central Bank, Credit Unions, An Post, the legal and accountancy professions, and the community and voluntary sector. This dialogue provided delegates with a forum to participate in an open and inclusive exchange again on the Terms of Reference. The public consultation process, which concluded on 8 July, received 102 responses.
Another important component of the Review was the consumer-focused survey of a representative sample of 1,500 consumers which was completed by Behaviour and Attitudes on behalf of the Department. The purpose of this survey was to ascertain consumers’ experience and perceptions of the banking sector in Ireland. The consumer survey report was published on 16 May 2022.
The Department also commissioned a comparison of international markets, through a competitive tender process. The international comparison was completed by Deloitte which included the collection of data for seven markets with similar characteristics to Ireland.
Currently the Review team are well advanced in drafting their report, which includes consideration of the information received through the various forms of engagement outlined above, and is in line to report to me in the coming weeks. On receipt of the report, I will take the recommendations arising from the review to Government for approval after which the report will be published.
32. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the price achieved for each disposal of shares in banks (details supplied) since 1 January 2020; the number of shares sold in each of those transactions; the number of remaining shares he holds in each bank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55771/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra33. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the price achieved for shares in a bank (details supplied) in each transaction since he began selling down the State’s shareholding following the financial crash; the total yield and individual price per share in each of those transactions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55772/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra34. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the price achieved for shares in a bank (details supplied) in each transaction since he began selling down the State’s shareholding following the financial crash; the total yield and individual price per share in each of those transactions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55773/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 32 to 34, inclusive, together.
As I have previously stated, the Irish Government believes that banking is an activity that should be provided by the private sector and that taxpayer funds which were used to rescue the banks should be recovered and used for more productive purposes. The State has made good progress in delivering on its policy of returning both AIB and Bank of Ireland ("BOI") to private ownership.
In June 2021, I announced that the State would begin selling its 13.9% shareholding in BOI through a trading plan. Given the success of phase one of the trading plan, I subsequently renewed the programme for a second and third phase, for which the details are set out in the table below. In September 2022 I announced the State had exited its shareholding in BOI, having achieved a higher price as each phase progressed, bringing total proceeds from the trading plan to €841m.
|
Phase |
Started |
Ended |
Start % |
End % |
No. Shares Sold (m) |
Average Price Per Share (cents) |
Total (€m) |
|
1. |
Jun-21 |
Nov-21 |
13.9% |
9.3% |
50.0 |
496 |
249 |
|
2. |
Nov-21 |
Mar-22 |
9.3% |
4.6% |
50.2 |
564 |
283 |
|
3. |
Apr-22 |
Sept-22 |
4.6% |
0% |
50.0 |
617 |
309 |
|
Total |
841 |
To 8 November 2022, the State has recovered €4.33bn of our investment in AIB by way of the IPO in 2017, phase one of the trading plan, the two share sales during 2022 and the bank's buyback programme Together these actions have reduced our shareholding from 99% to below 57%. The timeline by completion date and relevant details of these transactions are set out in the table below.
|
Transaction |
Completed |
Start % |
End % |
No. Shares Sold (m) |
Average Price Per Share (cents) |
Total (€m) |
|
IPO |
June-17 |
99.9% |
71.1% |
772 |
440 |
3,400 |
|
Phase 1 Trading Plan |
Jan-Jun-22 |
71.1% |
68.5% |
68 |
232 |
164 |
|
Share buyback programme |
May-22 |
70% |
70% |
28.5 |
245 |
64 |
|
Block Sale 1 |
Jun-22 |
68.5% |
63.5% |
134 |
228 |
305 |
|
Block Sale 2 |
Nov-22 |
62% |
57% |
134 |
296 |
397 |
|
Total |
4,330 |
Please note that phase two of the AIB trading plan, while now paused, is still on-going and we will disclose the proceeds from this when it has completed in January 2023.
35. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the dividends received on shares held in banks (details supplied) since 1 January 2020; the dividend per share; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55774/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn answering the Deputy's question, I should note that a recommendation to pay dividends is the sole responsibility of the board and management of the banks. I am precluded from intervening in commercial and operational decisions in any particular bank, even one in which the State has a shareholding.
I also wish to highlight that ECB guidance in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in March and December 2020 impacted on dividend distributions for 2020 and 2021. AIB and BOI withdrew their proposed dividend for the year ended 31 December 2019 which was due to be paid in 2020. None of the banks paid a dividend during 2021.
The below table sets out the dividends received by year and institution for each of the past three years.
|
Dividends Received (€ million) |
AIB |
BOI |
|
2020 |
0 |
0 |
|
2021 |
0 |
0 |
|
2022 |
86 |
2 |
The dividend per share received from AIB and BOI in 2022 was 0.045c and 0.05c respectively.
36. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance if he has held any meetings with Irish banks about the rate of interest paid on customer deposits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55775/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have not held meetings with Irish banks about the rate of interest paid on customer deposits.
Neither I nor the Central Bank of Ireland have a role in prescribing or the setting of deposit interest rates offered by banks. These are commercial matters and are the sole responsibility of the board and management of the banks, which must be run on an independent and commercial basis.
Although the State is a shareholder in some of the banks operating in the State, they must be run on a commercial and independent basis, and their independence in this regard is protected by the framework relationship agreements.
