Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Tóibín. If an individual or company resident or non-resident makes a gain on the disposal of Irish property, it is standard practice for them to pay capital gains tax at 33%. If an individual resident or non-resident has Irish rental income, they pay Irish personal tax. Likewise, companies, both resident and non-resident, pay corporation tax at 25% on their rental income with dividend withholding tax applied for non-residents. The big question is why the Government throws out the rule book when it comes to these funds. What is happening in this State is ridiculous. This State is being bought up inch by inch and foot by foot by these multinational, large investment and multi-billion euro funds and they are doing so under the noses of the Irish authorities. Inserted into the tax code is a provision stating that they must pay a minimum amount of tax. There is a number of elements to this. We are dealing with REITs, Irish collective asset-management vehicles or ICAVs and qualifying investor alternative investment funds or QIAIFs- each with a different tax structure. Let us look at 2015. The accounts of the three REITs in this State all recorded a profit of €238 million. How much did they pay in tax? They paid €5.27 million. The Minister's internal documents, which I obtained through freedom of information, show that the capital gains tax exemption for the qualifying investor funds is clogging up the housing market. It is more profitable for these funds to leave their apartments empty and their lands undeveloped and to hold them for five years than actually to sell or develop them and get tenants into those properties. That is because of the Government's policy.

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