Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 292: To ask the Minister for Finance the average income of those who availed of income tax allowances and reliefs in each of the past five years. [34389/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the relevant available information relates to the gross income earned by all income earners on the Revenue Commissioners' income tax records who availed of the personal income tax allowance or tax credit as a minimum. The information is provided for the income tax years 1998-99 to 2002, the latest year for which the necessary detailed data are available.

The figures for average gross incomes are set out as follows.

The calculation of averages above has been rounded to the nearest euro. Further details of this information can be obtained from table IDS 1 of the annually published statistics reports of the Revenue Commissioners.

The 2001 income tax year was a short transitional tax year running from 6 April to 31 December 2001 which preceded the first full calendar tax year 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2002. For this reason the average income figure attributed to 2001 year will not be directly comparable with those of earlier or later years.

It should be noted that gross income is income which is prior to deductions for capital allowances, interest paid, losses, allowable expenses, retirement annuities; is after deduction of superannuation contributions by employees but not by the self-employed; includes income of individuals whose total income falls below the exemption limits; does not include certain other income which is not income for tax purposes or is exempt from tax such as profits or gains from stallion fees, profits from commercial forestry and certain income from patent royalties, certain investment income arising from personal injuries, child benefit, maternity benefit and unemployment assistance paid by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, certain earnings of writers, composers and artists, bonus or interest paid under instalment savings schemes operated by An Post, interest on certain Government securities, certain foreign pensions which are exempt from tax in the foreign paying country, portion of certain lump sums received by employees on cessation of their employment, statutory redundancy payments and certain military pensions; and does not include or not fully include other income sources such as interest income that does not need to be declared or is not recorded, but from which tax has been deducted, unemployment benefit and disability benefit, non-recording of non-taxable amounts and of amounts taxed by restriction of repayments or indirectly through employers in the PAYE system, and the incomes of certain self-employed persons, including some farmers, as well as some individuals in receipt of pensions, who are not processed annually on tax records because their incomes are below the income tax thresholds.

A married couple who has elected or has deemed to have elected for joint assessment is counted as one tax unit.