Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we have already asked for it, we expect to receive it. We have covered what is to be dealt with at the meeting on 25 October.

On 1 November we have scheduled a meeting with Revenue to discuss a couple of interesting chapters in the report, as well as its annual report. I am asking for a letter to be sent to the Department of Finance and Revenue seeking an explanation for the extra €700 million in tax that arrived from the multinational corporation sector. I have no problem with the money arriving and will explain why we need the note. We have been told that this money came to be paid because of changes in accounting rules. My view is that these changes in accounting rules were well known a year or two out. They did not happen during the course of the year. Regardless of whether the moneys relate to the accounts for the last accounting year, or even this accounting year, the rules were well known and established. When the Department was drawing up its estimates of corporation tax receipts for this year, it must have known that the rules had changed. It did not happen this year. It was well known at least a year ago and possibly two. I want to know about the work done by Revenue and the Department in the knowledge that the accounting rules were going to change in a way that would affect corporation tax receipts. This has been known for quite some time. What work was done by Revenue and the Department to estimate how much in additional taxation the rule changes would bring in? Is it possible that there could have been a loss of corporation tax, depending on how it worked? I do not believe the Department did not know this was in the offing. I do not accept it. If I were to accept that it did not know about the rule changes, I would be saying it was utterly incompetent. We want to receive information notes from Revenue and the Department breaking down the details of this matter. They can work together to clear the relevant memos. If we were to ask just one of them to clear up this matter, it would tell us that the other one had the answers and vice versa. We are asking the question. We need to know these things. It was probably well known at the time of last year's estimates that there was a possibility that much more would be taken in. Perhaps it was decided to hold it in reserve. We need to be a little more transparent and accurate.

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