Department of Finance - Report of Tax Expenditures
05 July 2010
Section 1 of the Finance Act 2010 required that "The Minister shall within three months from the passing of this Act prepare and lay before Dáil Eireann a report on a cost-benefit analysis of tax expenditures provided for by this Act, setting out the costs of tax forgone, and the benefits in terms of job creation or otherwise".
This Report was published by the Department of Finance on Saturday, 3 July.
18 out of a total of 165 sections of the Finance Act were identified as falling within the OECD definition of tax expenditures and an analysis of each of the 18 is contained in the report including section 10 (amendment of section 825B -repayment of tax where earnings not remitted), section 54 (research and development tax credit) and section 45 (extension of relief from tax for certain start-up companies).
In most cases in this report, the annual cost of individual tax expenditures has been calculated using the "initial revenue loss" method and each tax expenditure is examined under a uniform set of criteria as follows:
- Description of expenditure
- Identification of objectives;
- Consideration of options;
- Quantification of costs and benefits.
The report is available by clicking here.