Results 17,321-17,340 of 32,610 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I take the point. I will engage with the Revenue Commissioners to see if they would recommend any further changes in this regard. On the basis of the information they have about the compliance activity carried out in the sector, the quantity of checks appears high, at over 5,000, and the total yield that has come out of that is just under €45 million. Therefore, it would appear...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy will be aware that, earlier this year, my Department, along with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, published a report entitled, "The use of intermediary-type structures and self-employment arrangements: implications for social insurance and tax revenues". He will also be aware that this report was informed by a public consultation. The report noted...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I have not seen the report of the Committee of Public Accounts to which the Deputy referred. I understand the Deputy's quotation is from a draft report. I am required to respond to all of the reports of the Committee of Public Accounts by minute and if the language referenced emerges in the report of the committee when published, I will respond to it. The Revenue Commissioners have...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: A limited form of income tax relief is available to certain taxpayers for interest payments on a qualifying mortgage loan, as set out in section 244 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. The relief has expired for mortgages taken out prior to 2004 and ceased for new borrowings from January 2013. This mortgage interest relief is, therefore, only available on qualifying mortgage loans taken...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I agree with the point made by the Deputy about productivity levels in the SME sector. Earlier in the year my Department published a paper, in conjunction with the OECD, in which we analysed productivity levels in the economy once we had stripped out the very large companies integrated into global supply chains. The analysis showed that we had productivity levels that were lower than they...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As regards a vacant property tax, an independent report on this topic commissioned by my Department was laid before Dáil Éireann on 18 September 2018, in accordance with the provisions of section 86 of the Finance Act of last year. The independent Indecon consultants report on the taxation of vacant residential property presents a detailed evidence-based assessment of vacancy rates...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy may be aware that during my response to amendment No. 161, tabled by Deputy Boyd Barrett, I advised that my officials would undertake to report next year on the activities of such structures in the Irish property market. I agreed on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill last year to conduct a report on the impact that REITs and IREFs are having on the residential property market....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It is my intention to find out if conclusions can be drawn, based on fact, about whether the activity of these funds is having an effect on different forms of property, particularly properties within our cities. This work is on-going and is a matter I want to look at personally and to understand any effect it may be having. One of the issues I have been looking at is that a large number of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: There is a debate under way as to whether I can do that or not.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: There is an active debate as to whether that is actually doable.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I did not hear that. I heard different views as to what can be done. It is wisest for me to say at this point that I am acutely aware of differing issues that can contribute to trends in our property market that might be different to the last property cycle we went through. I am aware of the scale of operation that is under way from some of these funds. I believe the scale of operation is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Plastic waste and recycling is a waste management issue and is overseen by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Ireland has supported the ambition of the recent EU proposal on the reduction of the impact of plastic on the environment. The Council of the European Union recently agreed a text to bring to negotiations with the European Commission and the European...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: For now, the short answer to that question is "Yes." The reason is exactly the same as the one I gave Deputy Michael McGrath last year. Every 1% reduction to the rate of life assurance exit tax will cost approximately €4.7 million. Therefore, reducing the latter to align it with DIRT rates from 2019 would result in a cost to the Exchequer of €28 million in the coming year...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I am pleased to tell the Deputy that my Department is in the final phases of preparing a report on this very issue for me. This is in response to the number of times this issue has been raised, particularly by Deputy Michael McGrath. We hope to be in a position to publish the report in a few weeks. It does not take away from the cost issues I have raised, but section 3 of the report in...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. I understand that this is an important source of investment and credit for SMEs and I think it is likely to grow in the near future. In my budget day speech I said that I am willing to look at how we can tax this sector and how this could be done in a way that is effective and deals with issues that Michael Deputy McGrath and representatives of the sector have raised. I...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Central Bank has already undertaken the work of looking at how the sector can be regulated and it will report back to me with its recommendations. I have an ambition to do this in advance of next year's finance Bill. It is a sector that is not regulated at the moment so we need to look at how it can be regulated in the first place but I am interested in this because I can see the role...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: That is correct but the purpose of this is to facilitate tax compliance. The sector is eager to see this withholding tax regime change and therefore I hope that as the sector begins to get a sense of how we believe it can be better regulated that the sector's views on withholding tax will colour its enthusiasm for participating in how the sector can be regulated.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: They are. I advise the Deputy that Revenue has published a considerable amount of information and detailed guidance about the standard fund threshold regime. Therefore, there is no requirement for an additional report as has been suggested and the policy position on the matter is well settled. The State offers extremely broad pension relief to encourage individuals to save to ensure they...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: That is correct. We are saying that the standard fund threshold is applied to the fund itself rather than the income so that is why there is only one of them. That is the reason we cannot divide it but I have been informed that it could lead to a situation where if we did divide them, people would be better off after the separation or divorce than when they were married.