Results 22,481-22,500 of 35,889 for speaker:Pearse Doherty
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: I have two other questions to seek clarity on this. Even though the title of it is, "Relief for investment in films", the Minister states it is also relief for investment in series, such as "Game of Thrones".
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Is the limit on an annual basis?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: If a series is thinking of shooting here and it shoots series one here, that would be deemed as a project but series two, that they might shoot next year, would not be seen as the same project; it would be a separate project. Is that the case?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Lastly, the minimum that must be spent on production is €0.25 million. We are seeing an increase on the upper end, up to €70 million eligible for the corporation tax credit. However, the minimum that needs to be spent on a production is still €0.25 million. What of the fact that the Government is not reducing that to encourage smaller budget movies, home-grown films...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Would reducing the threshold below €0.25 million for the cost of production enhance that building up of the skills base? With a threshold of the type of €70 million, one is talking about films such as "Star Wars", series such as "Game of Thrones" and Universal Studios. One is talking about attracting established offshore entities to produce here which has all of the revenue...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: How can the Minister be sure that this scheme is not being used as a tax avoidance mechanism by high net worth individuals?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: In terms of the profile of individuals who are investing, how do we know that this measure is not being used as a mechanism to reduce the effective tax rate downwards? Has Revenue undertaken any analysis in this regard and has there been any cost benefit analysis done of the relief?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Revenue might know that but I do not know it. How does the Minister know that this is not a scheme that is being used by high net worth individuals? We have the data in regard to other schemes. In terms of the property tax reliefs that were put in place under previous Administrations, reports after the fact were to the effect that they were used predominantly by high net worth individuals...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Sorry, could the Minister repeat the last point?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Nobody is suggesting that anybody in this room does not support what Revenue does. The question is in regard to the profile of individuals who are investing under this scheme. We have raised similar questions in the past in regard to other schemes, including the section 23 reliefs in terms of if they were to be abolished what type of profile of individual would have benefitted or lost as a...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Will the Minister respond to my other questions in regard to the cost benefit analysis of the relief, how many employees were hired as a result of the introduction of the relief, the businesses that received the tax relief and what level of tax relief was afforded in the last year in respect of which figures are available?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: I am seeing the figures for 2014 for the first time. Some 1,395 investors have invested in 239 companies, assuming that none of them invested in individual companies or a single individual invested individually in a company, we can say that at a minimum each one of the 239 companies had on average six investors availing of this scheme. Obviously some companies would have had one investor...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Okay. Has the holding period been reduced?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Is it still three years?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: So there has been no change to the holding period and it is still four years. In 2014, the last year for which we have data, the number of investors are six times the number of companies in which there was employment incentive investment. Does the Minister have details on the level of individual investors who invested in these companies? As I said, on average it is about six investors...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Is there any concern across the 239 companies that on average six investors invested in these individual companies? Is it a case that the companies advertise the EII scheme as a tax reduction scheme for investors? Is that the way the scheme was intended to work?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Obviously the relief is to the individual, who, as the Minister has said, must be approved by Revenue. The Minister mentioned that the fund rather than the individual makes the investment; will he explain that to me?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Is it the case that these investors do not know much about the business?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: We will leave it at that. How does the Minister justify broadening the relief to nursing homes, when running nursing homes is a profitable business?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance Bill 2015: Committee Stage (17 Nov 2015)
Pearse Doherty: Is this a type of property tax relief?