Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason I have not spoken to the section itself is because we are not on Committee Stage and I am, therefore, dealing with each of the amendments before me. To deal with the issue again, as the Deputy will be aware, this year we extended the scope of this provision by also catching shares that derive their value from Irish property, which we debated on Committee Stage. The intention was to catch any interest payments in respect of the period since budget day, which was 19 October. However, the drafting in the Finance Bill is not quite right in that it refers to interest paid after budget day. This, for example, means that interest which was accrued before budget day but paid out after it would be caught by the provision and this would amount to retrospection taxation. This is the point I have been attempting to make during the debate on this amendment. By making this change, we will catch the interest since budget day but not before. This goes back to the differing views on retrospective taxation.

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