Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 7:

In page 33, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:

"Report on revised threshold for High Wealth Individuals

27. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the introduction of a new threshold for High Wealth Individuals defined as persons in possession of net assets of the value of €10 million and above.".

This recommendation proposes that the Minister produce a report on the introduction of a new threshold for the definition of high wealth individuals as being persons in possession of net assets of €10 million or more. That is an extremely high level of wealth but lower than the current threshold. As we know, people earning €40,000 pay the same income tax rate as those earning €60,000. Those earning from €75,000 to €1 million may be able to avail of the SARP scheme, as we have already discussed, and pay a reduced rate. My recommendation is about examining the introduction of some form of wealth tax for high wealth individuals.

To give some perspective, in the five-year period between 2013 and 2018, during which time many people throughout the country were experiencing straitened circumstances and many parents were relying on the working family payment, there was a 32% increase in the number of millionaires in Ireland. We got 3,000 new millionaires last year alone. There are more than 1,000 of what are called ultra high net worth individuals, that is, people who have net assets of €30 million or more, living in the State. In addition, the number of billionaires went from eight to nine in 2018. During a period when the minimum wage was frozen, before starting to crawl back up, we had an extremely high increase in the numbers of people with immense wealth.

I have not gone for millionaires in my proposal, nor have I solely targeted our nine billionaires. Instead, I have gone for a level in between, a little below that of the 1,000 people with assets of €30 million or more. I am asking that the Minister consider a threshold for the introduction of a wealth tax which would include persons with assets worth €10 million or more. It is absolutely fair enough that they should be eligible for such a tax. They are not people who happen to own a family home that is valued highly because of where it is located. They are not people with two family homes and a small number of shares in the company in which they work. We are not going after people with property of any reasonable or normal level. When we talk about a net worth of €10 million or more, we are talking about people who can afford to contribute a little more to the State. I reserve the right to introduce on Report Stage a further proposal in respect of ultra high net worth individuals if the Minister of State is of the view that €10 million is too low a threshold in terms of people making an additional contribution.