Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for these amendments. This Bill provides for a surcharge to be applied to overdue payments. The surcharges currently provided in this Bill are a 5% surcharge on returns not delivered between three and six months of the specified date, and a 10% surcharge on returns delivered within six months of the specified date.

These surcharge percentages and timeframes are considered appropriate. They are also considered to be legally robust, given the timeframe between the possible commencement of this legislation and the payment date. These surcharge percentages are also comparable with other enforcement measures in existing legislation. It is a tight timeframe. We expect that the period between having legislated for these taxes and the date when the taxes are due will barely be two months. It is also new legislation. We have looked at previous legislation, and we have tried to set the percentages in line with it. I consider the proposed 50% rate to be disproportionate. If one owed money to Revenue, and one was six months late with it, a 50% surcharge would be very high.

This is substantial legislation. We expect to collect hundreds of millions of euro from it. We expect that these companies will be compliant. If they are not, the fines will be very significant, given the large amounts of money that are involved. We have to make sure that the legislation that we pass is legally robust and that we do not get tied up in challenges, so we have taken some time to make sure what we have is proportionate legislation. For those reasons, I am not accepting the amendments.

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