Three budget measures that never took off

Tomorrow, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will take to the steps of Leinster House with his budget briefcase, unveiling his new measures which may delight - or give fright.

In every Budget, there is the expected; increases in the “old reliables”, new incentives to boost business, and election friendly tax changes.

But every Budget usually also brings a couple of quirky announcements; some, such as the Home Renovation Incentive scheme, which was first announced in October 2013, have had considerable success. Indeed at last count, some €566 million in building works had been put through the scheme.

But, for every innovation like the HRI, or the exemption from capital gains tax for seven years on new property purchases which got the commercial property market moving again before it was abolished in 2014, there are the measures that fail to take off.

So, ahead of tomorrow’s pronouncements from Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, we look at a number of measures introduced in previous Budgets which have had a less than stellar response.

1. Savings for first-time buyers

Last October, it was revealed that first-time buyers saving for their first home would be entitled to a refund for Deposit Interest Retention Tax or DIRT on savings used to purchase this property, up to a maximum of 20 per cent of the purchase price.

The move, which is due to last until 2017, was meant to defray some of the impact of the Central Bank’s new mortgage lending rules, which followed in February of this year. After all, DIRT at 41 per cent takes away a lot of the gains to be made from saving.

At the time, there was much discussion about what the average savings would be (minimal) and how the scheme would work (which wasn’t very clear).

In his Budget statement, Mr Noonan said he expected that the banks would respond to the measure by introducing specific savings products to support it.

However, some 12 months on, such products are thin on the ground, and the Revenue Commissioners only allowed people to start claiming the refund in April.

It’s no surprise perhaps when you consider that with interest rates on the floor, the savings to be made won’t go very far towards helping first-time buyers get that first step on the ladder. Indeed someone saving €10,000 over four years or so would only be entitled to a refund of about €110.

2. Early access to pensions

With the country still mired in the depths of recession, cash strapped consumers started a campaign to try and get the Government to allow them to access their pension early. The premise was that many self-employed people couldn’t afford to run their businesses, even though they had built up substantial pension savings which if they could access, would help them get through the downturn.

So, the Minister duly responded and in December 2012 introduced new rules which allowed savers withdraw 30 per cent of additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) they had made on a once-off basis. However, the withdrawals were liable to tax at a person’s marginal rate, and were only allowable over a three year-year period until March 27th 2016.

The assumption was that some € 200m would be withdrawn from pensions over this three year period, but the hefty tax charge on withdrawals made the scheme of limited interest.

3. Incentives for expat workers

Once upon a time, foreign workers working in Ireland were allowed to pay tax on a remittance basis, which meant that they were only liable to Irish tax on Irish earned income. But then in 2005 the Gama scandal happened, and after the Turkish construction company was found to have availed of the scheme to pay workers in Ireland at Turkish rates, the scheme was withdrawn.

But, after much lobbying from sectors such as the financial services industry, in December 2011 the Government made an effort to reinstate the remittance basis of taxation by introducing the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP).

However, it was initially criticised for being too restrictive, and while it has improved in recent years, industry sources say it still isn’t enough for Ireland to be able to compete with schemes in other jurisdictions, such as the Netherlands 30 per cent ruling, or Sweden’s “expert tax relief”.

And the figures back this up. In 2012, just 15 employees availed of the measure, rising to just 31 in 2013.