Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My amendment No. 28 was ruled out of order but it deals with the same topic. It sought to amend section 18 of the Finance Bill on Irish real estate funds and to change the date which shall apply to disposals from 1 January 2019 to 1 January 2018. The section as it currently stands provides that IREFs which dispose of assets before 1 January 2019, and where the five-year period has elapsed, will be still able to avail of the capital gains tax exemption. The implementation of the change from 1 January 2018 would have had the effect of adding to the tax liability of those IREFs currently covered by this section in 2018.

Therefore the amendment has potential to impose a charge on the people, I was told. I do not understand where they came up with that one.

It was discussed at the committee. I do not understand why the Minister could not make it 2018. He might make the argument that this would be springing it on them too quickly, but the amount of profits that REITs have been allowed to make in this country in recent years is out of kilter with anything that has happened in the property sector in my lifetime. The State should be garnering much more from them than it is. To bring the date to 1 January 2018 rather than 2019 would be some compensation by recouping something that the State has lost.

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