Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy’s amendment refers to the current system of reporting data based on taxpayer units, whereby jointly or separately assessed couples are recorded as a single tax unit. This is an inevitable consequence of a tax system which allows for the assessment of married couples and civil partners based on the joint income of the couple. It is not possible at the moment for Revenue to provide an analysis on an individual basis as the tax liability of these individuals is not separately recorded, assessed or determined.

Under the Irish tax system there are three options for assessment of married couples or civil partners which form the basis of assessment for tax purposes: joint assessment, separate assessment and separate treatment. Under joint assessment, one spouse or partner is chargeable to tax on the total income of both members of the couple and can avail of the allowances, credits and reliefs available to both partners. Jointly assessed spouses can transfer certain tax credits, standard rate bands, losses and tax reliefs between them. Under separate assessment, each spouse is assessed separately but where one spouse’s allowances, reliefs or rate bands are not fully used they may be transferred over. These tax units cannot be disaggregated into two separate individuals for reporting purposes as it is likely that, in many cases, the taxable income and tax payable by the tax unit is not equivalent to the sum of the income and tax figures for the two spouses had they been assessed to tax on an individualised basis. In 2015, jointly assessed and separately assessed taxpayer units accounted for approximately 34% of all taxpayer units – that is, approximately 787,000 taxpayer units, comprising 1.57 million individuals, amounting in total to over half of the individuals in the tax system.

I would, however, note that my officials also have an interest in obtaining data, to the extent possible, on an individualised basis, and are working with colleagues in Revenue to investigate how we can do it. If robust aggregate data can be produced on an individualised basis, this data will be made available to Members of the Oireachtas. However I must note that the scope for individualised analysis will always be subject to limitations while joint assessment is a feature of our tax system. Taking these technical limitations into account, I cannot accept the amendment proposed by the Deputy.