Written answers

Wednesday, 18 October 2006

9:00 pm

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 129: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the dependence of the Government on revenue generated from taxes related to construction and consumption. [33227/06]

Photo of Brian CowenBrian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The main consumption related taxes are VAT and Excise duty. Taken together these two tax-heads were forecast to account for €18.6 billion or 45 per cent of total tax revenues in 2006, a very significant proportion of total tax revenues.

Construction impacts on a number of tax-heads, most notably capital taxes such as Stamp duty and Capital gains tax but also VAT and to a lesser extent Income tax, PRSI receipts and Corporation tax.

While revenues from construction related taxes such as Stamp duty and Capital gains tax have made an increasing contribution to the Exchequer in recent years, we are not overly reliant on receipts from these sources. For example, taken together the Stamp duty and Capital Gains tax tax-heads were forecast to contribute just 11 per cent of total targeted tax revenues in 2006. In contrast the 4 main tax-heads — VAT, Income tax, Corporation tax and Excise were forecast to account for just over 87 per cent of tax receipts this year.

Care has been taken not to plan the public finances around an assumption that receipts from Stamp duty and Capital gains tax will continue to grow in future years as they have in the recent past. This is a prudent and sensible approach to take.

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