Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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226. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of C2 subcontractors that were registered in each of the construction, meat processing and forestry sectors, for each year from 2008 to 2014; and the amount of tax paid by each sector in each of these years arising from the C2 arrangement. [25752/15]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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227. To ask the Minister for Finance if the national C2 monitoring group is still operational; and the number of times it has met in the past five years, by year. [25753/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to takes Questions Nos. 226 and 227 together.

I dealt comprehensively with questions relating to C2 Certificates in my responses to Parliamentary Question No. 9433/15 on 4 March 2015 and Parliamentary Question No. 13903/15 on 15April 2015, both of which were put down by the Deputy.

I previously explained that the National C2 Monitoring Group no longer exists and that the C2 Certificate was discontinued with effect from 1 January 2012 when the paper based Relevant Contracts Tax (RCT) system was replaced by the electronic Relevant Contracts Tax (eRCT) system.

While the National C2 Monitoring Group no longer operates, monitoring abuses of the tax and duty systems, including the eRCT system, is a key element of Revenue's day to day compliance programmes. 

Under the C2 Certificate regime in place up to 31 December 2011, a sub-contractor applied to Revenue for a C2 Certificate which was issued only to tax compliant subcontractors.  Those sub-contractors in possession of a C2 Certificate received payments from principal contractors without having tax deducted at source from those payments whilst those sub-contractors not in possession of a C2 Certificate had tax deducted at source, at the rate of 35%, from payments made to them by principal contractors. 

Under the eRCT system, a sub-contractor is allocated a deduction rate - 0%, 20% or 35% - at which tax is to be deducted from payments made by a principal contractor to that sub-contractor under a contract in the construction, meat processing and forestry sectors. The rate of tax deduction to apply depends on the sub-contractor's tax compliance record.  A person who previously held a C2 Certificate under the old regime, and whose tax compliance record has remained good, is very likely to be allocated a 0% tax deduction rate in the current regime.

As to the amount of tax paid under the "C2 arrangement", as I have explained, holding a valid C2 Certificate meant that a subcontractor received payments from a principal contractor without having tax deducted at source from those payments and therefore the matter of tax paid does not arise in such cases.

As to the Deputy's question about the number of registered subcontractors who held a C2 Certificate, as explained, the C2 Certificate was abolished at the end of 2011. A person who previously held a C2 Certificate under the old regime, and whose tax compliance record has remained good, is very likely to be allocated a 0% tax deduction rate in the current regime.  The number of subcontractors at the 0% allocated rate of tax deduction under the new system, is as follows: