Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 22: To ask the Minister for Finance if he has examined the take up of tax relief for pension contributions across different income categories; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7096/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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As I stated in my earlier reply it is not possible at present to examine the take up of tax relief for all pension contributions across different income categories. This is because the relevant information is not available to the Revenue Commissioners, because the tax relief for pension contributions for employees is normally given at source, that is, the taxable income is the income net of pension contributions by employees. However, data are available in respect of the tax relief for contributions to retirement annuity contracts, RACs, across different income categories. RACs are used by the self-employed and by employees who are not in pensionable employment. It is intended to examine this data in the context of the review of pensions reliefs which forms part of the review of tax reliefs for high earners.

Provisions were included in Finance Act 2004 requiring employers to give information regarding the total employer and employee pension contributions in the annual P35 return detailing PAYE paid and so on. We will then have a better data set in relation to tax relief for the generality of pension contributions, which will be useful for policy purposes.