Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I emphasise that a deemed disposal is where people pay tax on unrealised gains so they pay tax with cash they may not have. This particularly affects small and medium-scale investors. However, large-scale investors can set up offshore funds and different mechanisms of avoidance. It is unfair that people pay tax on something that they have not actually sold and made no gain. In fact, it probably forces these people to sell so that they can pay the tax, which discourages long-term investment and people investing for their future, pension or whatever. The idea of people having to pay tax when they have not actually sold anything is fundamentally unfair.