Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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324. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the pension levy on private pension schemes; his plans to reimburse pension funds for the levy deducted over recent years in view of the fact that the effect of the levy would be a reduction in pension that would last for the lifetime of the pensioner in view of the levy which reduced the value of the fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31085/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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This question refers to the stamp duty levies applying to the assets of funded pension arrangements introduced in 2011 to pay for the Jobs Initiative, the chargeable persons for which are the trustees of pension schemes and others responsible for the management of pension fund assets.

The original 0.6% stamp duty levy on pension fund assets ended last year. The additional levy of 0.15% which I introduced for 2014 and 2015, mainly to help continue to fund Jobs Initiative, will also end after this year.

The position is that the equivalent value of all of the money raised from the stamp duty levy has been used to fund the wide range of measures introduced in the Jobs Initiative to protect existing jobs and to help create new jobs and the Initiative has been a success in this regard. The measures introduced include expenditure measures such as the JobBridge and Springboard schemes, as well as a number of tax and PRSI incentives such as the reduction in the VAT rate from 13.5% to 9% for the tourism and hospitality sectors and the halving of the lower employer PRSI rate.

While the pension fund levies have ceased and will be ceased as I have already outlined, I have no plans to repay the pension fund levy collected as requested in the question. The value of the funds raised by way of the levy have been used to protect and create jobs and this has helped to create the improving financial and economic position of the State. Taxpayers to whom the impact of the levy may have been passed on by the chargeable persons responsible for the payment of the levy (the pension scheme trustees etc) will benefit from the changes which I began in Budget 2015 and which will continue in future Budgets to reduce the tax burden on low and middle income earners.