Results 2,121-2,140 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Written Answers — Department of Finance: VAT Rebates (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Businesses who makes supplies that are charged to VAT are entitled to claim input VAT on their business expenses. However, section 60 of the VAT Consolidation Act 2010 prohibits VAT deductibility by businesses for anti-avoidance reasons on certain goods and services which, by their ubiquitous nature, are not easily distinguishable from general non-business use. Expenditure on motor vehicles,...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Exemptions (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I presume the Deputy is suggesting that property owners who lease their property to councils or housing bodies should, on later disposal of the property, have gains attributable to the period during which the property was so leased relieved. I have no plans to introduce such a relief in this Finance Bill. In any case, I am not convinced that such a relief is the...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Corporation Tax Regime (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: The availability of relief for losses incurred in a business is a well-established feature of corporation tax systems worldwide. This is in recognition of the fact that a business cycle runs over several years and that it would be unbalanced to tax profits in one year and not allow losses in another. Ireland follows the international norm in that losses incurred in the course of a business...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Committee (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: We did not introduce an allocation of time motion, as would have been the custom in previous debates. However, to facilitate Deputies, if they would like an informal time motion, they can think about it and we can agree it, rather than proceeding by way of a formal time motion.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Business of Committee (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: All right. That is fine.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: First, I will give some context about the overall cost of the measures we propose in the Finance Bill. They net out at about €350 million out of a budget of just north of €58 billion. Therefore, what we are discussing here is very marginal in quantum terms, even though it is significant in policy terms. We should keep that in mind. The expenditure side of the budget has a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I will respond to Deputy McGrath's question first. The economic forecasts announced on budget day are also the economic forecasts that underpin the Finance Bill. We are proposing no change at present and we envisage no change. On the public service pay situation, the view of the Government is that the Lansdowne Road agreement provisions are still the agreement we have with the public...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: The Government has no plans to introduce a wealth tax, although all taxes and potential taxation options are constantly reviewed. Wealth can be taxed in a variety of ways, some of which are already in place. Capital gains tax, CGT, and capital acquisitions tax, CAT, are, in effect, taxes on wealth, given that they are levied on an individual or company on the disposal of an asset in the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I am not proposing the introduction of a wealth tax. I do not favour a wealth tax. There are, as I outlined in my initial reply, various taxes that apply to wealth already in the Irish tax code and I am not proposing to change those either. The paper, which will be presented in Dublin Castle on 23 November, is a joint paper between the ESRI and the Department of Finance. It will aim to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I thank Deputies for their contributions. Certainly, high marginal tax rates have an effect on employment. If one taxes something, one tends to get less of it, and if one reduces taxes on something, one tends to get more of it. We tax tobacco products because we want people to smoke less. We tax alcohol because we want people to be more moderate in their use of alcohol. If one puts penal...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I am not sure I can shed much light on the discussion but I might add a little heat. I was asked if there was economic evidence to support the theory that high marginal tax rates have an adverse effect on growth and employment. The large body of economic literature documents the evidence on the responses of different groups to the tax schedule and, in particular, the marginal tax rate. The...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Deputy Doherty constantly misquotes what happened. His charge before the break was that I had said that it was not an emergency measure.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: What I said was that it was not a temporary measure. I will quote from the income tax reform plan from the Department of Finance. It states:Up to Budget 2008, Government policy with regard to income tax was to increase tax credits and bands to the point where 40% of income earners were exempt from income tax, and only 20% of earners were liable to the higher rate of income tax. This...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Deputy Doherty is the person who has changed his views since 2011. At that stage, Deputy Doherty put down a motion to abolish the USC because it was an abusive tax and all manner of strange things that he recited subsequently.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Deputy Doherty did not answer it. He obfuscated.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Chairman, I have not. Do not reinforce the views of the Deputy. I have not avoided it.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I have answered it. That is the point I am making.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Now the left is helping the left. Deputy Doherty has gone to the Trotskyites to support his case. I thought he was in the Stalinist tradition.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Yes, I was reflecting the intention of the Minister at the time.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Not when it was introduced.