We will have lots of time. We are going to have lots of time. It just gets a bit tiresome when the Deputy just shouts me down.
TDs / Simon Harris
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Or interjecting.
For the people watching at home, I get a bit of time to speak and then the Deputy gets a bit of time to speak. I want people to know that we took a decision to reduce the VAT rate on people's energy bills and ensure that is in place for a number of years. We took the decision to make sure more people qualify for the fuel allowance than ever before. We took the decision to increase the fuel allowance. We took the deci…
In childcare, too.
We put money into capital, State-led childcare facilities for the first time. We extended the renters’ tax credit which was due to expire. We have taken real decisions and it is just the first of five budgets.
I thank Deputy Nash for the question. First, we share the same view on the importance of this derelict property tax. In a housing emergency, which we are in, every lever must be used. Having a tax that targets derelict properties is an important one. There is a significant body of work to do, however. I do not say this to in any way cast aspersions but I am conscious that local authorities will have an important role…
I appreciate the past examples. I remember soldiering on some of them together in past iterations of government. We need to get this right, however. My predecessor announced that timeline on budget day. I think we will all agree that we actually do not want to collect much revenue from the tax. Rather, we want people to take derelict properties and sites and put them back into use. The purpose of making the budget da…
I genuinely am eager to engage on the design and construct of the new tax and we will have an opportunity to do that through the legislative process. I do also genuinely take the point around the urgency of this, and the Government genuinely does too, but we also have to just make sure we get it right. I am conscious there are local authorities around the country that do very a good job and that are also very busy. T…
I am advised by Revenue that LPT returns for the next valuation period of 2026 to 2030 have been filed and are fully up to date in respect of over 1.4 million properties. Filing arrangements are being finalised in respect of a further 202,278 local authority and approved housing body properties. There are approximately 40,000 open correspondence queries on hand with Revenue presently, including postal queries and pap…
I am genuinely sharing with the Deputy and I am happy to see if I can get him even more up-to-date information. I had a discussion on this earlier today as well. I am advised by Revenue that it is estimated that around 4% of properties will move up one band. These are the latest data I have available here, but I will try and get more up-to-date for the Deputy as soon as that is available. Let me try to provide him wi…
We have different views on property tax. Although I am open to correction, I think the Deputy used the property tax figures in Sinn Féin's alternative budget figures-----
That is okay, but we are not. We are committed to the local property tax as a sustainable way of trying to fund local services. We have a situation where more is now being returned to local authorities. Council chambers across the country, including the Deputy's own councillors, engaging in discussions about what to do with that revenue base that the local authorities now have. We have also increased the level of dis…
Residential zoned land tax is a self-assessed annual tax that is calculated at 3% of the market value of land within its scope. It is charged on 1 February each year beginning, as the Deputy said, in 2025 and it applies to land that is zoned for residential use and is serviced and identified on maps published by local authorities, but which is not residential property. The RZLT aims to prompt residential development …
That is correct. Some 160 claimed exemptions and 585 requested deferrals.
The deferrals relate to people seeking to change the use of land. However, I will get the specific note from Revenue in relation to that for the Deputy. The tax is working reasonably well. The other questioner here, Deputy O'Gorman would have pushed for this and was an active supporter of it within the previous Government. We brought it in, and we are seeing some encouraging signs. The Deputy may have seen that the C…
In my new role, I am learning not to muse on tax changes outside of a budgetary process other than to say that we continue to keep the effectiveness of the tax under review. We will continue to review it in advance of forthcoming budgets. Our view is that we have a tax in place in relation to taxing residential zoned land where there is not residential property on it. We have put a system in place. This was important…
I thank Deputy Brennan for his kind words. I look forward to working with him as well.
Capital acquisitions tax, CAT, applies to both gifts and inheritance and is charged at a rate of 33%. For CAT purposes, the relationship between the person giving a gift or inheritance and the person who perceives it determines the maximum amount, known as the group threshold, below which the CAT does not arise. The group threshol…
I am conscious of the area of the country the Deputy represents and the area of the country that I represent. I am also conscious that property prices, inflation, capital tax, etc., can place a real burden on people, particularly in circumstances where they inherit, for example, family homes. These are real issues that come across our desks and into our lives as we interact with people we represent. We will continue …
I will, because without pre-empting any future budgets, the last time we did this in budget 2025 we decided to move each of the bands and that was appropriate. We need to look at this in the round. There are always competing demands on what you can do in relation to a tax package each year but we have only delivered one budget out of five. We have four more and if we continue to keep the economy in good stead, contin…
I thank Deputy McCormack very much for his kind words. I look forward to working with him. I also very much welcome this question because while I look at it from the Department of Finance perspective now, previously in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade I engaged significantly on trade and tariffs at an EU level. It is so important we continue to, as he rightly says, monitor the impact all these issues have …
The Deputy is very much right. That is the reason we set up the Government trade forum. We have in the room now all relevant Departments, including mine, along with the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade, public expenditure, agriculture and enterprise. We also have the IDA and Enterprise Ireland meeting ISME, Chambers Ireland, IBEC, the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland and all the various agencies so we can…
I absolutely will. The Deputy is right. This is the sector that got away from the final deal. I know from talking to the EU Commission and counterparts this is the next big priority for Europe because of course it affects us here via Tullamore Dew and Irish Distillers but it also affects France, Italy and other countries, as well as Scotland, if you like, outside the EU. This is an issue we as a country and as a Unio…
I am not and I did not know what happens.
I thank the Deputies for these questions. I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 15, together.
The VAT registration thresholds are, as the Deputies note, subject to the requirements of EU VAT law, with which Irish VAT law is obliged to comply. Under the directive there is an upper limit of €85,000 on registration thresholds that member states may apply. Ireland’s VAT regist…
I thank the Deputies for their questions. To recap my position, I have tried to outline why, to date, there has always been a policy differential in the threshold for goods and services. There is some validity to that. The Deputy is right that there are some European countries that might have a higher threshold than Ireland, but Ireland certainly has one of the higher thresholds, so we are certainly at the upper end …
I was checking the figure on the R and D tax credit while the two Deputies were speaking. Some 87.5% of claimants of the R and D tax credit are SMEs, so while the greater quantum is claimed by FDI because of the size of FDI, the overwhelming number of applications is coming from SMEs. That shows it is working and has the potential to work even better.
I would make the point that we raised the thresholds in the Finan…