Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 69: To ask the Minister for Finance the revenue that would be raised in a full year from reducing the standard fund threshold for superannuation funds to €1.2 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36890/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Standard Fund Threshold (SFT) is the maximum allowable pension fund on retirement for tax purposes which was introduced in Budget and Finance Act 2006 to prevent over-funding of pensions through tax-relieved arrangements. The SFT was reduced in Budget and Finance Act 2011 by over 50% to a level of €2.3 million with effect from 7 December 2010 with transitional arrangements to protect the capital values of the pension rights of individuals where these exceeded the reduced SFT on that date. There is currently no underlying data available to my Department or to the Revenue Commissioners on which to base reliable estimates of the savings from a further reduction in the SFT to the level indicated in the question.

Information on the numbers and values of individual pension funds or on individual accrued benefits are not generally required to be supplied to the Revenue Commissioners by the administrators of pension schemes and personal pension arrangements. For these reasons, the estimated savings included in respect the Budget and Finance Act 2011 change in the SFT were quite conservative, based as they were, on incomplete data and using very broad assumptions.

My Department has been engaging with representatives of the pensions industry with a view, among other things, to gathering private pensions-related data which may be of value into the future in estimating the costs of potential changes in the pensions' tax area. These engagements are ongoing.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 70: To ask the Minister for Finance the revenue that would be raised from a 2% increase in the standard rate of VAT and if his estimate assumes a change in the volume of sales in response to such an increase; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36891/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the revenue that would be raised from a 2% increase in the standard rate of VAT is estimated at €670 million in a full year. This estimate does not take into account any behavioural change on the part of taxpayers as a consequence of such a measure.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 71: To ask the Minister for Finance the revenue that would be foregone from exempting persons on gross incomes of less than €15,000 from payment of the universal social charge and separately the revenue that would be foregone by exempting medical card holders from payment of the universal social charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36892/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the estimated full year cost to the Exchequer, estimated by reference to 2012 incomes, of increasing the existing exemption threshold of €4,004 per annum for the Universal Social Charge (USC) to €15,000 per annum would be €120 million. These figures are estimates from the Revenue tax-forecasting model using actual data for the year 2009 adjusted as necessary for income and employment trends for the year 2012. They are therefore provisional and may be revised.

I am further advised by the Revenue Commissioners that as medical cardholders are not generally separately identified on tax records there is no statistical basis on which an estimate of the cost of exempting medical cardholders from the USC could be compiled. However, based on information derived from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) conducted by the Central Statistics Office, it is tentatively estimated that the full year cost to the Exchequer of exempting medical card holders from the USC would be €175 million in 2012 and €245 million from 2015 when the transitional concession ceases.