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

Briefly. I will come back in when we come to the Government amendment. I tabled the amendment, but the real target is the target set out in amendment No. 46 which, unfortunately, has been ruled out of order. Deputy Donnelly's point underlines why we are concerned about this section, which is that we are allowing the continuation of a special tax status, or non-tax status, for people speculating in property. They are investing in property and making a hell of a lot of money from rents and then from very significant property capital gains with the appreciation of the property value.

The Minister is applying a little sticking plaster, which is better than nothing, while allowing the fundamental tax loophole to remain, which is that those investing in property, by declaring themselves as funds, get exemption from normal taxation, both on the massive rental income generated given that rents have gone through the roof and are generating a housing and homelessness crisis, and massive profit on the inflation we have seen in property prices. They are going to walk away tax-free from all of that. They will even essentially be able to avoid the proposed withholding tax if they roll up the profits and buy even more property.

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