The Department of Finance has proposed that implementing congestion charges would be a more effective and fair approach to achieving environmental aims than introducing car parking levies. The suggestion came in the annual set of papers scrutinising budgetary policy, where financial bureaucrats advised against the initiation of a car parking levy after assessing its potential influence against other strategies to lower emissions in the Tax Strategy Group (TSG) documents.
The said officials also considered the possibility of obligating individuals who receive a bequest or a significant present worth more than €3,000 to disclose the particulars to the Revenue Commissioners. This is part of the government’s endeavour to reinforce the nation’s inheritance tax framework.
From the TSG, a report also revealed that if the tax-free threshold from parent to child was to increase from €335,000 to €350,000, it would pose a cost of €15 million to the treasury. If the same were to rise to €400,000, the financial impact would amount to €52 million.
Additionally, the Tax Strategy Group observed that the uppermost 10 per cent of income earners in Ireland, those with earnings exceeding €102,000, would contribute nearly two-thirds of this year’s income tax and universal social charge.
In separate news, Jack Chambers was alerted at his inauguration as Finance Minister last month that the recent changes in industrial policy could undermine Ireland’s competitiveness in various crucial sectors. According to Finance Department functionaries, small and open economies are unlikely to gain from more relaxed state aid policies within the EU. This is due to larger member states possessing superior financial muscle to subsidise their manufacturing sector.
The officials warned that “This scenario could lead to multinational corporations preferring to situate their operations in EU countries offering the greatest financial assistance, thus sidestepping Ireland while maintaining unhampered access to the Single Market.”
Furthermore, the papers highlighted that the hospitality industry reported business failure rates threefold greater than any other sector in the initial quarter of 2024.