Results 3,341-3,360 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: There have been state aid interventions with the Aughanish company over many years and there have been appeals. I understand that the matter is under appeal again, but the appeal is not by the State, it is by the company. We are generally aware of it, but it does not concern this issue, namely, tax. It is a different issue. Regarding Revenue informing me, it did not have to. Anyone...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: I have already answered that question.

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: I was surprised by some elements of the announcement. I was telephoned on what I believe was Tuesday, 23 August, a week before the announcement by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. I knew her because she was the economy Minister from Denmark and attended ECOFIN meetings. I had worked with her for three years, especially on banking union and such like. She had promised earlier through...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: -----an unexpectedly early announcement in the end, but we had all of the work done in the Department of Finance and were ready to go to the Government and look for a decision to appeal. I contacted the Taoiseach. The Government's first meeting was to take place this week, but he brought a special meeting forward to last Wednesday. We then consulted colleagues and gave them plenty of time....

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: If the Commission is advising that it cannot publish until interested parties have an opportunity to redact or advise on redactions from the report, I cannot give the Deputy accurate information on elements of it by stripping out the information in response to questions. In general terms, the competition Commission insists that under state aid rules it is acting in accordance with law and...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: No. It is saying that states have competence on tax matters under the treaties and that this adjudication is not on tax but on state aid where it regards a tax issue as state aid. The Commission will not say it has the competence on tax issues. It is saying it has competence on state aid and that is its space. Is it being used as a Trojan horse? Certainly, the decision will be used as...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: First, the Revenue Commissioners do not regard them as rulings but as opinions. An opinion does not have the force of law underpinning it. In the scrutiny by the Commission of possible state aid to Ireland, it requested a lot of files for a lot of companies. In the first tranche, five opinions were sent to the Commission, and in the second, there were ten. There was a more recent one....

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: I cannot comment on the accuracy of the quotations the Deputy attributes, but I can tell him the position. There is a 130-page document which was generated by the competition Commission which incorporates the context of the decision and the decision itself. The Commission advised us that it would send a copy to Apple and to the Government as the two interested parties and that it would send...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: What were issued in 1991 and 2007 were opinions. There is no suggestion of any political input into those decisions by the Government of the day. The Revenue Commissioners are independent and they decided on independent grounds that this was the position. An opinion arises when a company looks for advice on what the tax situation is. A company is coming into a country and wants to know...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: The Government decision was to appeal but there was a second leg to the decision, entrusting the development of the grounds for appeal to the Attorney General and her advisers. She will employ counsel and a full legal team led by senior counsel. They will be responsible for the appeal. She has approximately two months to do this under the guidelines and I am sure she will inform the...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: The affairs of individuals and corporations are confidential and the Revenue Commissioners does not give information about the tax affairs of individuals or individual companies to the Minister or anybody else. It is confidential and the information would not be available. The Deputy knows from our debates from 2013 onwards that stateless companies or companies not resident anywhere for tax...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: The Revenue Commissioners are being charged with collecting any arrears deemed to be due. They will advise on the interest rate as well. If I have information on the exact amount of interest or estimates, I will share it with the Deputy, the House and the other finance spokespersons, such as Deputy Michael McGrath. Everybody familiar with the issue of corporation tax and the debate driven...

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: You would want to sell the yacht.

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Michael Noonan: I move:"That Dáil Éireann:(i) supports the Government decision to appeal the European Commission’s decision that Ireland provided unlawful State aid to Apple; (ii) commits itself to the highest international standards in transparency in the taxation of the corporate sector; (iii) resolves that no company or individual receives preferential tax treatment contrary to the Tax...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (21 Jul 2016)

Michael Noonan: The 9% reduced VAT rate for tourism related services was introduced in July 2011 as part of the Government Jobs Initiative. The measure was designed to boost tourism and create additional jobs in that sector. In my Budget Day speech last year, I suggested that while the case for retaining the measure for the hotel sector in Dublin is diminishing each year with room rates rising particularly...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Property Tax Yield (21 Jul 2016)

Michael Noonan: I am advised by Revenue that statistics relating to Local Property Tax (LPT) can be found on the statistics webpage of the Revenue website at www.revenue.ie/en/about/statistics/index.html. Specifically, the most recently available LPT information, including LPT collected in respect of each Local Authority area, is available at www.revenue.ie/en/tax/lpt/lpt-stats-2013-2015.pdfin respect of...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Departmental Staff Sick Leave (21 Jul 2016)

Michael Noonan: I wish to advise the Deputy that the following table contains the figures for the Lost Time Rate for my Department for the years 2011 to 2015 inclusive, as well as the Self Certified Lost Time Rate. Year Overall Lost Time Rate Self Certified Lost Time Rate 2011 3.43% 0.31% 2012 2.43% 0.26% 2013 1.86% 0.18% 2014 2.6% 0.25% 2015 3% 0.22% The lost time rate represents the percentage...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (21 Jul 2016)

Michael Noonan: I am advised by Revenue that where an inheritance is taken from a parent by a son or daughter, the Group A tax-free threshold for Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) of €280,000 applies. The son or daughter will not be liable to CAT if the value of the inheritance, when aggregated with all other gifts and inheritances received from a parent since 5 December 1991, does not exceed this...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (21 Jul 2016)

Michael Noonan: All fruit juices, soft drinks, bottled water and smoothies are subject to the standard VAT rate, currently 23%.  The standard rate is the VAT rate applied to such products in the majority of EU Member States.  Prior to 1992 bottled waters and fruit juices had applied at the zero rate, but were made subject to the standard rate from 1 November 1992 in order to correct a competitive...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Code (21 Jul 2016)

Michael Noonan: The Programme for Partnership Government  commits to the introduction of a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks (SSDs). The tax will contribute towards important public health goals, as well providing a new source of revenue for public spending and decreases in personal income taxation.  The tax on sugar-sweetened drinks has been proposed by the Department of Health in order to...