Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy will be aware, in budget 2005 I announced that my Department, in conjunction with the Revenue Commissioners, would undertake this year a detailed review of certain tax incentive schemes and tax exemptions.

There are a number of elements to the review which is already underway. It will evaluate the impact and operation of certain incentive schemes and exemptions including their economic and social benefits for the different locations and sectors involved and to the wider community, including external consultancy work on the evaluation of property based tax incentive schemes. It will examine the degree to which these schemes allow high-income individuals to reduce their tax liabilities.

As well as examining relevant international approaches, the review will also include a consultation process seeking submissions on measures that could be introduced to balance the benefit of such reliefs and the extent to which such incentives and exemptions are used by high earners to reduce their tax bill. One such measure to be examined will be whether additional caps should be introduced in respect of certain tax reliefs in order that they cannot be used to eliminate the tax liability of high earning persons.

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