Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 193: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will set out for each tax credit and tax relief available to individual taxpayers, including but not confined to tax relief on mortgage interest, tuition fees, BES, service charges, rent payable in private tenancies, trade union expenses, health and medical expenses, the cost to the Exchequer in terms of tax foregone for each year from 2002 to date in 2008; the budgeted cost for 2009; the numberof taxpayers availing of the tax relief; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46944/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the total identifiable costs to the Exchequer of all income tax credits and reliefs available to individuals are set out in the following table for the income tax years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, the most recent year for which the necessary detailed information is available except where otherwise stated. Relevant notes relating to items in the table are also set out below.

Projections for income tax receipts are based on assumed movements in macro-economic parameters and not by reference to the costs of individual tax reliefs. Accordingly, I am not in a position to provide the data requested by the Deputy for the years 2006 to 2009 in relation to the above mentioned reliefs.

The numbers availing represent income earners who were in a position to absorb at least some of the tax relief and thereby give rise to an Exchequer cost. They do not include the numbers of potential claimants whose entitlements to other tax reliefs were sufficient to reduce their liability to tax to nil without reference to the specific relief. The numbers availing are rounded to the nearest hundred as appropriate.

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

Green Paper on Pensions — updated estimates of cost for 2006

As part of the work on the Green Paper on Pensions, a review was carried out of the current regime of incentives for supplementary pension provision with a view to developing more comprehensive and reliable estimates of the cost of reliefs in this area. The review examined, among other things, the current reliefs and incentives for investment in supplementary pensions and the data available on which to base reliable estimates of the costs in revenue foregone to the Exchequer.

The review drew on newly available 2006 aggregate data on contributions to pension schemes by employers and employees arising from a P35 initiative introduced on foot of provisions that were included in Finance Act 2004 with a view to improving data quality. Arising from the review, estimates of the cost of tax for private pension provision for 2006 have been made. As similar data sources would not be available for previous years, it is not possible to provide costings on a similar basis for those years except in the case of 2005 for which tentative estimates have been compiled.

The breakdown and make-up of these estimated costs of reliefs differ from presentations of costs in this area for previous years in a number of respects and are not directly comparable. For further details on the cost of tax and other reliefs and the changes in the methodology, refer to pages 106 and 107 of the Green Paper on Pensions which is available at www.pensionsgreenpaper.ie.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 194: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will set out for each tax credit and tax relief available to businesses the cost to the Exchequer in terms of tax foregone for each year from 2002 to date and the budgeted cost for 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46945/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the information requested in relation to the main tax credits and reliefs available to businesses under the Income Tax Acts for which estimates of cost can be provided is as set out in the following table. The information provided covers the period from 2002 to 2006, the latest year for which most of the necessary detailed data is available. Data is not yet available for 2007 as the tax returns for that year are currently being processed. Tax returns for 2008 are not due until next year. Projections for income tax receipts are based on assumed movements in macro-economic parameters and not by reference to the costs of individual tax reliefs. Accordingly, I am not in a position to provide the information requested by the Deputy for 2009 in relation to these reliefs.

A number of tax reliefs, credits and deductions (for example, personal credits, pension contributions, BES, Film relief and property based tax incentives), which are also available to self-employed and PAYE taxpayers, are not exclusively available for business reasons and have not been included in the table.