Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

An asset tax is in effect a wealth tax. We currently have in place two wealth taxes. Normally, wealthy people are taxed when they gift some of their assets to their children or when they die and their children inherit their assets. There are two forms of tax, which run at 25%, which is considerable. Naturally, we will consider every tax coming up to budget time. So many taxes are currently being suggested and mooted. I am not suggesting the Government is considering an asset tax. The Deputy referred to the wealth tax in France, which is at 1.5%. On a pro rata basis, that kind of tax in Ireland would have a yield of €400 to €500 million per annum. However, if one is talking about it as a substitute for other taxes, one would lose more in the take on, say, income tax than one would gain on this new form of asset tax. We also have the situation of those with assets in Ireland being domiciled elsewhere, so I am not sure what the actual yield would be.

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