Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 284: To ask the Minister for Finance the distribution by income bracket of income tax relief on pension contributions distinguishing that for retirement annuities and for employer pension schemes in 2002 and the most recent year for which he has returns. [26000/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the only relevant information available is in respect of income tax relief allowed for contributions to 'Retirement Annuity Contracts' for the income tax year 2002, which are available to the self-employed and to employees not in occupational pension schemes.

A distribution by income ranges of the number of cases, amount of deduction and reduction in tax for tax relief for Retirement Annuity Contracts is contained in the following table.

The information is based on income returns on Revenue records at the time the data were compiled for analytical purposes, representing about 95% of all returns expected.

It is not possible to provide corresponding figures in regard to the take-up of the tax relief for pension contributions by employers and employees as the relevant data are not captured in such a way as to make this possible.

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