Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Government has tabled an amendment, which slightly amends what was agreed on Committee Stage. What I am trying to get out of the amendment is that, essentially, there should be no such thing as the exclusion of profits from Irish real estate funds. The Government amendment slightly varies what it had earlier but it still allows significant profits to be excluded. I do not see the justification or rationale for any profits from the real estate investment funds being excluded and not taxable. If I understand the very complicated discussion we had on Committee Stage, the funds will be taxed if the profits or dividends are distributed, but if the fund holds on to the property assets beyond five years, they will not be subject to capital gains tax. As I suggested on Committee Stage, that seems to mean that with the rental revenue the funds are accumulating from very high rents from the real estate they have bought, they can roll up the revenue and profits and, if they do not distribute them, they could just use the money to buy more and more property assets and get a massive capital gain. As long as they hold onto it for a certain period, however, they pay no tax whatsoever on it. As we know, the value of property has gone through the roof. We know the funds are making enormous money on rents, which have gone through the roof, in large part thanks to the profiteering of those entities, and as long as they do not distribute the profit but can use it to just buy up more property, they will pay no tax.

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