Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The two major reports on tax reliefs undertaken in the context of last year's budget were published along with the Finance Bill. They give a detailed and clear assessment of many of these reliefs. The majority of the moneys are in respect of the following categories. Basic personal credit amounts to more than €5 billion; personal reliefs such as child benefit, €327 million; mortgage interest relief worth €222 million; private health insurance, such as VHI and BUPA, €191 million; PAYE expenses, €112 million; reimbursement of health expenses, €82 million; other reliefs such as trade union subscriptions, rent reliefs and redundancy reliefs are worth €80 million, bringing a total of personal reliefs of more than €1 billion. Other discretionary or incentive reliefs on pensions amount to €2.8 million; capital allowances for companies include over €1 billion for self-employed and €560 million for farmers; for SSIAs it is €530 million; Government savings schemes, €230 million; rent and residential reliefs for section 23, €69 million; charities, €49 million; profit sharing schemes, €36 million; artists, €22 million; films, €25 million; business enterprise scheme, €17 million; maintenance of spouses, €15 million; others, such as heritage items and stock relief, €108 million. This gives a total of €11,647 billion.

The majority of the reliefs I have cited are in respect of credits and reliefs available under the tax system for the vast majority of taxpayers. When pensions are included, these reliefs account for more than €9.5 billion of the total figure, which includes entirely legitimate items such as capital allowances for business, etc.

In circumstances in which Revenue seeks to change a tax provision on the basis of how the courts subsequently interpret it or as a result of a practice that develops beyond the contemplation of the specific section, when enacted, it advises the Department and I take its advice in practically all cases. It would be open in an individual case for a Deputy to table a parliamentary question to determine whether Revenue could estimate the expenditure incurred.

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