Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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78. To ask the Minister for Finance why he has not acted on information his Department received from a whistleblower regarding the abuse of the dwelling house exemption by high wealth persons as a means of avoiding capital acquisitions tax; the details of anti-avoidance measures and the caps on relief he has considered to stop this supposed abuse; the number of persons who have availed of this exemption and the amount of capital acquisitions tax exempted in each of the years 2006 to 2015 in tabular form. [12447/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The dwelling house exemption is a provision of the capital acquisitions tax (CAT) legislation. It allows for the tax-free transfer by way of gift or inheritance of the residential property in which a beneficiary lives, subject to certain conditions. These conditions include a requirement that the beneficiary has been living in the property for three years prior to receiving it and that they remain living in the property for six years afterwards, except in certain special circumstances. It is also a condition of the relief that the beneficiary not be beneficially entitled to any other residential property at the time of the transfer.

The underlying purpose of the relief, which I consider to be reasonable, is to prevent so far as possible cases of hardship arising from a tax perspective when a person is gifted or inherits what is, in effect, their home. My Department and the Revenue Commissioners have encountered some evidence that individuals may be using the relief as a way of passing on wealth tax-free in a manner which is not in line with the core aim of the relief. This evidence has come from several sources, including information provided by an individual who claimed to have encountered the practice in a professional capacity.

My Department and the Revenue Commissioners are currently working to gather and assess information relating to such possible practices and to consider whether the current scope of the relief is in line with its original spirit. The Deputy's attention may have been drawn to this subject by media reports following the release by my Department of material relating to the issue in response to a freedom of information request submitted by a journalist. As is clear from the material released in response to that request, the work of investigating this issue and developing potential policy responses is current and ongoing.

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the available information in respect of dwelling house exemption from capital acquisitions tax is as shown in the table. The estimated cost for the Dwelling House exemption does not take account of the availability or otherwise of the relevant tax-free thresholds if the exemption did not apply.