Results 6,701-6,720 of 36,188 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I move amendment No. 13: In page 22, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: "Report on the Foreign Earnings Deduction 14.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the Foreign Earnings Deduction, the extent to which the relief has achieved its policy objectives and to review its qualifying...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I hear what the Minister has said, namely that there will be another review. I would prefer if it were next year, as the Minister will understand. It has been a while since the last one, in 2019, and work practices are changing. I do not have any evidence to suggest there is activity of the kind in question but we know we are in a different environment in which work practices have changed....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Is this on the special assignee relief programme, SARP?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: For the benefit of Deputy Farrell, an issue she wished to raise on the KEEP might be raised now.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Can the Minister directly answer the recommendations from the experts he asked to look at this in the Commission on Taxation and Welfare? It recommended a higher effective tax rate, a reduction in the upper limit and restrictions in some of the benefits, such as fees for private education. Why were those recommendations not accepted by the Minister?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Minister accept that many of the companies that have employees who benefit from this large tax reduction operate tax equalisation? It is not the employees who benefit from this; it is going to the corporate entity, which, in many cases, is located outside Ireland. Does he accept this is the case, that is, that these employees would get the same wages whether they were in America or...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: A total of 35% of SARP relief was reported to have been granted to employees subject to tax equalisation. That is one in three. Where a company operates tax equalisation, the Commission on Taxation and Welfare has stated that the "benefit of the incentive in those cases is mainly passed on to corporate employers located outside the State". The Minister says he is not aware of this and I do...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: It is dealt with on page 7 of the Revenue report. It states: "Employers of 24%of SARP claimants reported that they operated the claimant's payroll on a tax equalisation basis." That broadly means, as I said, that employees pay no more or less tax while on international assignment than they would if they remained in their home country. The company bears all the home and host country tax...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Can the Minister provide the background to this? This is obviously on the taxation of foreign retention arrangements and in particular regarding the lump sums. This brings into focus what many people could only dream of, that is, the idea of being able to draw down a lump sum of €0.5 million. It is interesting to note if somebody was in a position to draw down a lump sum, their tax...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister for that. However, the core question was on the policy rationale and how the tax has applied up to now. My understanding is that there has been conflict or that tax practitioners would have had an issue with this and would have challenged the Revenue’s interpretation, which, in fairness, was not the Revenue’s interpretation all along but was one which...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: That is substantially different. I had thought that this was just applying the legislation in practice. To clarify, is it being taxed as income, with the exemptions that exist in Irish law for lump sums applying? Is there an exemption up to €200,000, with 20% tax payable on the portion above up that to €500,000?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: This is in regard to the application of benefit-in-kind, BIK, in that the employer contributions and the contributions on behalf of an employee from an employer in regard to a personal retirement savings account, PRSA, are no longer considered benefit-in-kind. Has the Department done any analysis of the increased cost of the tax relief on pension contributions following this change? That is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Does this not benefit, for example, proprietary directors who can influence their own package now that benefit-in-kind will not apply to this? It is different if someone has no influence over what their employer is contributing to them, but if someone is a proprietary director, are they not able to game the system now?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Would it not be natural that someone is able to do that? If someone can make more employer contributions that are not deemed benefit-in-kind, there is now an incentive to do this and that would allow for someone to enhance their pension savings.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: How is it there if it is treated as benefit-in-kind at the minute?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: So they can do it under a one-member scheme at the minute and BIK does not apply.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: When we are talking about one-member schemes, for occupational schemes and PRSA schemes are the employer contributions subject to age-related percentage limits?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: Now that the proprietary director can pay himself or herself, or impact his or her remuneration package, under a PRSA which is not subject to the age limit restrictions, that allows him or her to do something that was not available under the occupational scheme because there are limits in terms of the age-related percentage limits that kick in, but that do not kick in under PRSA.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: I want to tease this out. Obviously, the fund threshold exists for all pensions and it is €2 million. However, if I am a proprietary director and I am contributing as an employer into an occupational scheme, and I am 60 years of age, then there is a limit to the amount I can put in under an occupational scheme. Is that not the case? Let us say the pension pot is €1 million...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2022)

Pearse Doherty: What was used to extrapolate from the figure of 302,000 to 400,000?