Results 4,861-4,880 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen

Written Answers — Motor Vehicle Registration: Motor Vehicle Registration (21 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the original vehicle registration tax, VRT, paid is taken into account where a commercial vehicle which has been previously registered for VRT purposes in the State is converted in such a manner that the VRT classification changes from category B or C (commercial) to category A (passenger). Section 132(5) of the Finance Act 1992 provides for the...

Written Answers — Civil Service Staff: Civil Service Staff (21 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I understand that the Deputy's question relates specifically to the situation regarding civil servants. There are a number of grounds on which a civil servant may be removed from office. First, under the Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Act 2005, which was commenced on 4 July 2006, disciplinary action may be taken on grounds of misconduct, irregularity, neglect, unsatisfactory behaviour...

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: The answer to the Deputy's questions is yes. The Government's approach to tax policy is set out in An Agreed Programme for Government and in recent budgets and Finance Bills. In addition, the partnership agreement, Towards 2016, states the Government is committed to a taxation policy designed to maintain and strengthen the competitive position of the economy, foster improvements in...

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: The tax strategy group and the Revenue Commissioners independently conducted an exercise, which found that even for those whose tax is calculated at 42%, the effect of the new fairer tax credit system brought in by the Government in 1999, combined with the other income tax changes to rates and bands, means that four fifths of earners pay no more than one fifth of their earnings in income tax....

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: Let us deal with the facts. The Deputies can play around all they like. Revenue has confirmed that of the 32% of earners who pay tax at the 42% rate, the tax liability of 11% of them is more than offset by the tax credit. Their effective tax rate, therefore, is 20%.

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: Is it a fact? The tax strategy group——

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: Excuse me.

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I am answering, not asking, the question.

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: Four fifths of income earners have effective tax rates of 20% or less. This has been confirmed by the Revenue Commissioners and the tax strategy group. It is annoying the Opposition that this is the fact.

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: That is not true. The Deputy has suggested that everyone with a gross liability at the market rate pays all taxes at that rate, which he knows is untrue. The Revenue Commissioners——

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I did not interrupt the Deputy. Through the tax strategy group mechanism, the Revenue Commissioners have independently brought forward information that, despite the Deputy's blather, confirms that 80% of income earners pay tax at rates of effectively 20% or less. The bottom line——

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I am not introducing a concept.

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: When one speaks about tax, one discusses credits, bands and rates. If one asks an ordinary person on the street earning €50,000 per year with a tax liability of €10,000 about the rate of tax, he or she will say that it is 20%.

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: It is 20% of that person's gross income. The logic of Deputy Bruton's position——

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: More than 750,000 low income earners pay no income tax compared to less than 400,000 when we entered office. Ireland has the lowest tax burden on single persons on the average wage in the European Union and one of the lowest in the OECD. For a married couple with one earner, two children and average earnings, we have the lowest tax rate in the OECD. After inflation has been taken into...

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: ——has seen his or her take-home pay increase by more than 40%, approximately half of which is due to tax reductions.

Fiscal Policy. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: Some 80% of income earners are paying at rates that are effectively 20% or less. These facts have been validated by the Revenue Commissioners.

Tax Collection. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: The Revenue Commissioners have been examining the operations of stamp duty and developers and have undertaken a survey of a number of developers to gather more precise information. I will decide what to do when I receive the observations of the Revenue Commissioners. Stamp duty applies when a title to property is legally conveyed. A legal instrument must convey the title, but such an...

Tax Collection. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: This year, Revenue is conducting a broad review of the construction industry. When it reports before the Finance Bill, we will see what it has to say about the situation. Under the stamp duty code, a developer can obtain a licence from a landowner to build on that land without incurring a stamp duty charge at that stage of the venture. There is no duty on the licence, as the licence only...

Tax Collection. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: The continual reference to personal friends is a joke. From the point of view of the person who grants a licence to a developer rather than making an outright sale of the lands concerned, the same amount of capital gains tax would arise as if there were such a sale.