Results 2,001-2,020 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Actually, I do not think I am. I think we are taking a run at it.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: The exemption also includes passes for travel on commuter ferry services which operate within the State in respect of journeys which begin and end in the State. The exemption does not extend to car parking charges which are purchased as part of a combined travel pass which includes car parking charges, nor does it include ad hocparking charges, such as daily charges. While I could agree to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: -----cycle to the station, and one will get the double tax benefits.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I will speak first to amendment No. 66 which seeks a report on options for the abolition of LPT. LPT is designed to provide a more sustainable system of funding for local government and place the provision of local services on a sounder financial footing. It has led to greater transparency and accountability at a local level and it is certain that the stronger democratic relationship and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: As well as accepting Dr. Thornhill's proposal that the revaluation date would be deferred to 2018 or 2019, I accepted and enacted other proposals and amendments as well. For example, proposals regarding the treatment of property with pyrite defects and properties adapted for persons with disabilities were enacted in the Finance Act 2015. I know there are other problems in the quality of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: The 4% figure arises from a scheme that was included for the benefit of home owners who did not have the cash flow to pay property tax. They could defer it. A typical example might be that the main wage earner in a house is deceased and somebody has a large and valuable house without a very significant income stream. This allows people to defer the property tax and it accumulates as a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Under the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009, a new section – section 396C – was inserted into the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. The provision limited the amount of prior-year losses that a NAMA participating institution could offset against trading profits to 50% of trading profit for each accounting period. It should be noted that it did not disallow any tax losses...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I have very little to add to my initial speaking note which I read into the record. The motivation for the change in 2013 arose from CRD 4 and the new capital rules for banks under Basel III. Up to then, it was possible to continue to use potential losses in a bank in calculating the off-setting arrangements against tax liability as part of tier 1 capital. When the change took place, it...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: The only point to make to Deputy Paul Murphy is that losses in business can be offset against tax liability. It is not a separate rule for the banks.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Why?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I know it is great rhetoric and great political positioning to scapegoat the banking sector, but if the country did not have functioning banking sector providing the credit lines private citizens and businesses need, it would continue to be bankrupt. Part of the bailout programme and part of what we have done for the past six years has had to be to restore a proper banking sector. If one...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Businesses can do that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Deputy Boyd Barrett's initial contribution put personal taxation and corporate tax in the same space. Personal taxation is a tax on income, and corporation tax is a tax on profits, so they are not comparable. It cannot be said that if one's personal income were reduced because one made a bad decision or bought a defective car, one should be able to write that off against one's income. We...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: Under existing loss relief provisions in the taxes Acts, any unrelieved trading losses of a company for an accounting period may be carried forward for offset against trading income of the same trade and future accounting periods. Losses incurred in the carrying on of a trade are a normal fact of business life. The provision of relief for such losses is a standard feature of our tax code...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: We probably have that information internally. I will get the Deputy a note on it.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: It is important to emphasise that the relevant contracts tax, known as the RCT system, does not determine the employment status of an individual engaged in the construction industry. The design and development of the relevant contracts tax system was an anti-tax evasion measure to counteract tax evasion in the construction, forestry and meat processing sectors. Principal contractors are...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: It is becoming a manufacturing industry rather than a construction industry. A great deal of what goes into modern buildings is manufactured off site in factory-type environments and is brought on site to be put together. One sees this in what is happening on the commercial side in Dublin. It is not quite like assembling Lego, but there are construction companies that are supplied to a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I disagree with the Deputy in one respect. There is a lot of very high-quality, well-designed and well-built construction taking place in Dublin and it is much better than it was during the Celtic tiger. The construction methods the Deputy deplores are the methods in use in every major city in the world, whether the temperatures are above or below freezing point. One does not mix concrete...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: I thought it was a very interesting discussion. All I can do is reaffirm that Revenue is paying particular attention to any instances of bogus self-employment it comes across and that it regards the construction industry as being one of the high-risk areas. Revenue has taken action and as I have already pointed out, one piece of work yielded €51 million in additional taxes. Deputy...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Michael Noonan: That is not true.