Results 46,081-46,100 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (22 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I welcome the amendment. A point was raised about non-executives who worked for charities and non-profit organisations and it is particularly welcome that the amendment appears to help them. I have a question about the so-called high rollers, whatever number they constitute. In the case of a non-executive director of a company who earns any amount above €5,000 - let us say he...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (22 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: My question was about the principle, with which I am struggling. I understand that in the amendment the Minister has capped the total amount at €5,000 for anyone in a non-executive role. If a person, regardless of what he or she earns from his or her non-executive role, breaches the cap included in the amendment, such costs are taxed. In the case of a person who has to travel to...

Post Office Network: Motion [Private Members] (16 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: My colleagues, the rural Independent Deputies, deserve great credit for using their Private Members' time to bring forward this motion, which seeks to secure the future for rural post offices. I commend them on a thoughtful, well-considered motion. My understanding is that the Government will not oppose the motion which, if I am right, is to be welcomed. We are all acutely aware of the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: The context for the changes to the section came about when it came to light the vulture funds were essentially paying no taxes in the country. I took a look at the total assets managed by the vulture funds and the yields they were making on them. This is based on their own accounts and the profits they state they are making. By my calculations, were they allowed to continue to avoid paying...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister of State. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, has stated previously, and I want to check this for the purposes of this conversation, the vulture funds use section 110 in a way in which it was never intended. Is this still the Government's position?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister of State. If the Minister of State does not mind and bears with me, I will run through the loopholes. The first loophole the advisers are telling the vulture funds they will be able to use to continue to avoid paying taxes in spite of, in fairness to the Government, very good efforts to try to shut down this behaviour, is they are bullish their existing loan...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Minister of State. The next loophole regards the interest rate. The legislation proposes that rather than allowing these variable interest loans which suck out all of the profit, loans now have to be made to the vulture funds at a reasonable commercial return. What the accountants are advising their clients is there is no cause for concern as they will be able to get them rock...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I appreciate that on amendment No. 96 but the substantive part of the amendment is “would represent no more than a reasonable commercial return to a regulated commercial bank,” because then we are into the 3% to 4%. I do take the Minister of State’s point about breaking the link to profits. The profit participating notes are structured and it explicitly states in them...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: The fear is that Revenue can tell smaller companies that while it knows they would like 15% applied to this it is going to be 5% and if they have a problem with that they can spend the next ten years litigating. The vulture funds do not have that problem. They are not scared of the Revenue Commissioners. They will walk in with a Lever Arch folder of 1,000 pages explaining very clearly and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: My understanding is the Revenue Commissioners will do individual deals with companies. Each company will present its own case for a reasonable commercial return because each company has a different risk profile, different asset base, circumstances, for example, the loan might be coming from a different entity. Is the Minister of State saying that Revenue will determine for section 110...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: That is not the same thing. Consistent treatment is not the same as the same answer. Revenue of course will say it is going to apply the same way of thinking to each company but each is in a different situation, one has a low risk asset base and therefore a low interest rate is reasonable, another has a high risk asset base and so a higher interest rate is reasonable. My understanding is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: The language is important. The Minister of State says Revenue will not do deals with individual companies. Revenue will do deals with individual companies. Revenue will make a ruling for each company on the interest rate it pays and that ruling will be kept secret. I do not think it will do deals as in anything inappropriate. I absolutely accept that Revenue will apply the legislation...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: I agree with the Minister of State, and I believe it is a fine balance, but this is an exceptional situation where we have a very small number of companies paying zero tax such as €250 on profits of €40 million or €50 million. Let us just round that tax down to zero. This is off the backs of businesses and families who are paying back their loans. The reason the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: No. My amendment anchors it to regulated commercial banks. What is a perfect-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: If a regulated commercial bank was willing to give a mezzanine rate of 8%, for example, they might make two loans; one is senior debt which the bank would get back before anybody else is repaid and that could be loaned at 4% and the second loan could be the non-secured loan, which is a risker loan so the bank might lend that at a rate of 8%. I would deem interest deductibility against those...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: The problem is that we do not know. We do not know what revenue is going to do. As legislators, we would be giving them the phrase "reasonable commercial return". I argue that if the Government's position is to just let Revenue at this, then I am happy to accept that. There must, however, be some kind of feedback mechanism to the legislature to they arrived at a range of, say, 10% to 20%,...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Absolutely. Based on what they have been doing, I am not terribly concerned about the tax privacy rights of vulture funds in Ireland but I do take the Minister of State's point. I will suggest one other fix for this. I cannot find anywhere in the proposed amendment that explicitly breaks any link between the vulture fund and the lender of the extra money. At the moment they lend money to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: The third point that accounting firms and lawyers are very excited about is the exemption in the amendments - as the Minister of State has already referenced - covering the residential backed mortgage securities, commercial backed mortgage securities and collateralised loan obligations. This means that if one owns a bunch of debt such as those loans owned by the vulture funds, for example...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2016)

Stephen Donnelly: Therefore, what the vulture funds are being advised is to take their existing loan books of, say, 10,000 mortgages, package them up into a residential mortgage-backed securities and list the . That will take approximately two weeks. A company in Luxembourg will then buy such a security and, because it is a section 110 vehicle and exempt from the new provisions, the profits deriving from...