Results 15,561-15,580 of 26,902 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Briefly. I will come back in when we come to the Government amendment. I tabled the amendment, but the real target is the target set out in amendment No. 46 which, unfortunately, has been ruled out of order. Deputy Donnelly's point underlines why we are concerned about this section, which is that we are allowing the continuation of a special tax status, or non-tax status, for people...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Sorry. Which amendments are we dealing with?

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They are important issues.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 41:In page 43, to delete lines 13 to 40, to delete pages 44 to 62, and in page 63, to delete line 1. The amendment relates to the Irish real estate funds. We had this discussion on Committee Stage. We tabled a few amendments on the issue, most of which have been ruled out of order, in particular, amendment No. 46. Amendment No. 41 deletes the sections that we were...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Government has tabled an amendment, which slightly amends what was agreed on Committee Stage. What I am trying to get out of the amendment is that, essentially, there should be no such thing as the exclusion of profits from Irish real estate funds. The Government amendment slightly varies what it had earlier but it still allows significant profits to be excluded. I do not see the...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but it is important to get across what I am trying to ask.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not see why any of these profits should be excluded. It just seems to me that the Minister is allowing a massive tax loophole to continue for the benefit of property speculators.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I agree with the amendment and endorse Deputy Donnelly's comments, but I will go further on a point that is not covered by the amendment but is connected to it. It relates to section 110 generally. I do not fully understand the mechanism through which these companies have avoided significant amounts of tax or even how much they have avoided, but we need to know the details. What else is...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To be honest, I do not fully understand it, but I am not satisfied that the Minister has made a case for section 110 in general. His main argument seems to be that there are 38,000 jobs in the IFSC and that, therefore, we should not worry about people such as those in Matheson telling investors to get into the area of aircraft leasing and use section 110 to ensure they will pay no tax. To...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Our amendment proposing that the section 110 tax break be done away with, full stop, was ruled out of order. I would like a simple answer from the Minister as to why that should not be the case. It is very technical and one's head would be fried, frankly, with this stuff, which, I suppose, is half the point. These flipping tax lawyers are so far ahead of us, the Government and Revenue in...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I accept Deputy Joan Burton's point about minimum effective rates of income tax, but the argument we were making which was not supported by the Government in which she was involved in the previous five years was in favour of having a minimum effective rate of corporation tax. She was in government but did not implement such a measure. I am glad that she is now echoing the point. This...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Or the Committee on Budgetary Oversight.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not believe it is the Deputy's time to speak. Is it? I do not think so.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is strange that for the past five years we have been raising this issue and when the Deputy was in government, strangely enough, they did not implement it.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am. They did not implement an effective rate of 12.5% but now they are apparently the ones who invented the proposal. I am glad that they have had a bit of a conversion on that issue because it is an absolute scandal. From figures just pulled from the Revenue website today, the full figure for losses brought forward in 2014 is extraordinary. It is over €215 billion. It is...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Deputy should read them. They were not included in any of her Government's budgets.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They were not addressed in any of your budgets.

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes. I just cannot resist it really. When people tell porkies like that it is just too difficult to not respond. It is extraordinary that €103 billion in gross profits results in total tax paid of €4.9 billion. That is not 12.5%. The figure of €4.9 billion tax on €103 billion is 4.75% on gross profits and other earnings. That is the real effective corporate...

Finance Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Nov 2016)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The massive extent of losses being carried forward by banks and other big enterprises to write down their taxable income and consequently reduce their tax liability is an unbelievable scandal. There are many other mechanisms and loopholes through which the corporate sector can write down its tax liability. The scale of it is truly staggering and points again and again to the need to impose,...