Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

Section 70 provides for the filing of tax returns in respect of capital acquisitions tax by 30 September each year in place of 31 October. The Minister of State will recall that a similar change was proposed for income tax generally but that was reversed in the Dáil deliberations on the Bill. It is an oversight and a flaw in the Bill that the provision was not similarly reversed for capital acquisitions tax. I say it is an oversight because if one goes back to the Finance Bill 2010, the explanatory memorandum states that the Bill provides for the payment of capital acquisitions tax and the filing of a return to be brought into line with other self-assessment taxes. The objective was to have the same deadline for the submission of returns and payments in the case of income tax on a self-assessment basis and capital acquisitions tax. I ask the Minister of State to accept that this section be deleted. I would be disappointed if this type of correction could not be accommodated during the debate today. It should be if the House is to have any input and the debate any meaning in terms of correcting what are clearly oversights and errors in the Bill as a result of the speed with which it been dealt in the Dáil.