John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 82: To ask the Minister for Finance the revenue raised in each of the past five years from the €20 Government levy on ATM cards; the amount of any similar levy on ATM card holders for each of the other EU Member States; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21343/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The stamp duty on ATM and debit cards is €10 per annum. In the case of combined cards (cards which have both ATM and Debit functions), the stamp duty is €20.

The Deputy will be aware that I introduced changes in this year's Finance Act to alter the way that stamp duty is charged on combined cards. The stamp duty on a combined card was reduced to €10 per annum where the card is only used for one function (either ATM transactions or debit transactions) throughout the year.

Stamp duty on ATM cards has existed for some time, whereas stamp duty on debit cards was only introduced for 2003 et seq. The yield from stamp duty on ATM, debit and combined cards is shown in the table.

The ATM duty on combined cards for 2001 and 2002 is included in the statistics provided for ATM cards for those years.

I am not aware of any other EU Member States imposing taxation on financial cards.

Stamp duty exists on various financial cards in order to provide Exchequer revenue. The stamp duty on cheques, bills of exchange and promissory notes has existed for many years and when electronic means of money transfers were subsequently introduced, stamp duty was gradually extended to these products to ensure that the stamp duty from cheques etc. was not eroded. The stamp duty applies irrespective of the volume of bank transactions made.

Stamp duties on financial cards are significant contributors to the Exchequer and are in accordance with the overall taxation policy of widening the tax base in order to keep direct tax rates generally low.