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

79. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of tax paid by companies operating in the International Financial Services Centre, Dublin in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6532/15]

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

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that, based on provisional figures for 2014, the total Corporation Tax receipts from the financial and insurance activities sector was around €1,045 million. The estimated total PAYE and associated USC receipts from this sector was in the region of €2,010 million. These figures encompass both domestic and international financial and insurance services across the country as a whole.

I am further advised by the Commissioners that it is not possible to precisely identify the contribution of companies located in the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin to this total. There are however some indications of the size of this contribution.

The estimated Corporation Tax paid in 2014 by companies previously licensed to operate in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is of the order of €545 million.  The estimated total PAYE and USC receipts associated with these companies for 2012, the latest year available, is in excess of €250 million.  It should be noted that these figures relate only to those companies that were once licensed under the preferential IFSC tax regime, which expired in 2005, and for which registrations ceased in 2002.

Following the end of the IFSC tax regime, the corporation tax rate applying to international financial services activities increased from 10% to the standard rate of 12.5%, and therefore it is generally speaking no longer possible to distinguish tax paid solely by companies operating in the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin from tax paid by other companies in the sector.

Separately, based on Revenue analysis of more recent Central Bank information on companies currently operating in the international financial services sector, it is estimated that these companies paid approximately €600 million in Corporation Tax in 2012 (the most recent tax year for which data are available). The associated amount of PAYE and USC is tentatively estimated to be in the region of €384 million. These estimates are tentative and should be considered as provisional, as they may be revised subject to improved information becoming available.  It should also be noted that the figures relate to the international financial services sector as a whole, and are not limited to companies operating in the geographical area of the IFSC, Dublin.