Results 14,541-14,560 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen

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.

Tax Collection. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: Sub-sale relief has always existed in the stamp duty code and licensing arrangements with landowners have been a traditional way in which developers develop land. The arrangements involving powers of attorney are more recent, but in recent years and owing to prosperity, the proliferation of developments structured in this way has come to the notice of the Revenue Commissioners and such...

Tax Collection. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I do not have a figure for the cost. The Revenue Commissioners are investigating the matter.

Tax Code. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I refer the Deputy to the statements made by the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr. Frank Daly, to the Committee of Public Accounts when he appeared before it on 9 November 2006. In response to questions from the Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts on the amount of money that may be owed to taxpayers and a suggestion that, in the case of PAYE taxpayers, large amounts are not...

Tax Code. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: I will consider some of the suggestions the Deputy has made. I indicated in my reply that, as a result of much discussion in this House and committees of the Houses, in consultation with the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, efforts have been made to improve the ability to claim back ordinary credits to which taxpayers are entitled. The chairman has said in recent years that increasing...

Tax Code. (22 Nov 2006)

Brian Cowen: Over the past few years many of the more significant reliefs have been made virtually automatic either through the introduction of tax relief at source, TRS, or through the automatic carry forward of the reliefs. Mortgage interest and medical insurance reliefs, for example, are provided at source through the taxpayer obtaining a reduction in repayments or premia equivalent to the tax relief....