Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 November 2022

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare: Discussion

Dr. Martina Lawless:

On capital acquisitions tax, the broad point that this is largely a windfall tax from beneficiaries means looking more closely at how that tax operates, and broadening the base of it, is one of the recommendations of the report that makes a lot of sense. It does not have the same level of onerousness as valuing assets on a recurring basis. That is one of the big problems with the implementation of a wealth tax. There could still be ways in which, perhaps, assets could be shielded in some way from a capital acquisitions tax and trusts may be one of those that would need to be looked at in much more detail. It is not something we looked at specifically. We looked at information on transfers within households. It was reported on from the beneficiary perspective and questions were not asked about the legal formation of that. I do not have a very detailed answer but it is certainly something that would need to be carefully designed to make sure the base was as broad as possible and any distortions were limited.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.