Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 163:

In page 142, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:

"Report on new threshold for High Wealth Individuals

60. The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the introduction of a new threshold for High Wealth Individuals defined as persons in possession of net assets of the value of €10 million and above.".

This is a simple amendment dealing with criteria to assess high net wealth individuals. It does not call for additional taxation or anything like that, although we have dealt with matters like that in previous amendments. Emerging from the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General was a reflection on the Irish threshold for high-worth individuals with assets of over €50 million, indicating "a high threshold compared to other jurisdictions". We can look at international experience and the thresholds applied and see that is very clearly the case. The threshold of €50 million is high. In Spain the threshold is €10 million and in Britain it is €11.4 million approximately, or £10 million. In Portugal it is €25 million and in Australia it is the equivalent of €18.5 million. This amendment seeks to deal with a matter in which we seem to be out of kilter. It is the definition of high net worth individuals as people with assets in excess of €50 million.

I appreciate there has been restructuring with the Revenue Commissioners in dealing with large case divisions and high net worth individuals. Perhaps it is something we will deal with on another day, particularly allocated resources to each division. There may be a bit of an issue with regard to alignment. If we brought down thresholds to be more in line with other jurisdictions, it would capture more individuals. There is no common definition across different jurisdictions on assessment - it is up to each jurisdiction to determine a threshold - but our threshold, in the words of the Comptroller and Auditor General, is high compared with others. That is not warranted.