The Gazette 1975

DAIL EIREANN—30 January 1975

Questions on Office Transfers from Estate Duty

Office

Mr. Collcy asked the Minister for Financc whether

a,,

staff

were

transferred.

permanently

temporarily, from the Estate Duty Office for work in

connection with the Capital Taxation proposals; and,

ff so, the number of persons and the grades involved.

Mr.

Ryan: In the Office of the Revenue Com-

missioners work on taxation proposals is, as a matter

practice, allocated to the branch whose existing

functions have the closest affinity to the proposals. In

hxing staffing complement for each branch regard

•s had to the necessity for dealing with taxation pro-

posals as well as administering existing taxes.

Because of the Estate Duly staff was already experi-

enced in the technicalities of.Capital Taxation the new

proposals in that field weré allocated to them. No

officers were transferred from the Estate Duty branch;

on the contrary, at critical times, assistance was pro-

vided to the officers in it from other areas in the

Revenue administration. Sincc no officers were trans-

ferred from the branch, the second part of the

question does not arise.

Mr. Collcy: Were any officers transferred from their

ordinary Estate Duty Office work to work in con-

nection with the capital taxation proposals?

Mr. R. Ryan: In the ordinary course of the business

°f the public services officers who have experience in

Particular areas of administration are necessarily

involved in the drafting of any changes in legislation

affecting their area of administration and, of course,

that happened in the Estate Duty Office as anywhere

else.

Mr. Colley: May I ask the Minister whether, as a

result of the carrying out of work on the capital

taxation proposals by members of the Estate Duty

Office staff, the work of the Estate Duty Office went

into further arrear than that in which it was?

Mr.

Ryan: No. I can categorically assert that

this is not a fact. I would point out to Deputy Colley

that when I was in Opposition I addressed questions

from the Opposition benches about the delays in the

Estate Duty Office. When I assumed responsibility in

the Department of Finance I took steps to ensure that

many

f the previous delays would be eliminated,

^ne of those steps was making arrangements as and

ftom August, 1973 whereby all new inland revenue

affidavits would be assessed provisionally on receipt.

Consequently, many of the delays which previously

arose and which could easily have been avoided have

s , n c e

- been prevented. If the Deputy is referring to some

recent printed complaints, at least some of those are in

Jpspect of the administration of estates where the

Estate Duty Office are awaiting information from the

People who are making complaints. Until such time as

t h e

corrective affidavits are filed, the finalisation of the

e s t

a t es in question cannot be arranged. The fault does

° t lie with the Estate Duty Office because the public

« now getting a speedier service there than they used

receive.

Mr.

Collcy: Are we to take it from the Minister has

that he is satisfied there is no shortage of staff to

e a l

with the work?

Mr. Ryan: I am never satisfied if there is anv delav

on the part of the public service which could be

eliminated. I am satisfied that the steps which we

look to eliminate previous delays and to anticipate any

pressures which might arise on the staff of the Estate

Duty Office in dealing with the reform of the whole

taxation code ensured that the situation would not

get worse. In fact, it has improved a great deal I

am glad to say over the last 18 months.

Mr. Colley: Is the staff at full strength?

Mr. R. Ryan: There have unfortunately» been a

number of illnesses and unforeseen retirements and

resignations ahead of the normal period but the

strength has nonetheless been maintained. Now

that we are about to get rid of death duties the whole

administration of this office will be under far less

strain and difficulty than it has been in the past.

Mr. Davern: What does the Minister consider a

reasonable time for the Estate Duty Office to complete

its work on any particular case?

Mr. Ryan: The Estate Duty Office completes its

work usually within a matter of weeks after receipt of

affidavits. Where queries arise which require replies

from the person who lodged the affidavits, obviously

the length of time taken to deal with the matter will

depend on the length of time taken by the people to

reply to the queries which are presented to them.

Many of the complaints that have recently been voiced

in public have been made by people who themselves

are in default. There is no loss to any individual as

a consequence of delays in the Estate Duty Office

because interest does not run as long as the handling

of a particular administration is in the hands of the

Estate Duty Office. It is only when it has left the

Estate Duty Office and work requires to be done by

others that interest runs.

Mr. Davern: I feel that two and three years on a

simple, straightforward case of, say, a £16,000 estate

where there is only a widow left is too long.

Mr. R. Ryan: The Deputy will appreciate that I

speak with experience from both sides of the fence.

There can be ordinary human delays but the com-

plexity of the death duty laws and the difficulties of

valuation and so on can often lead to a situation where

you have those lengthy periods of administration. I

share with the Deputy a desire to eliminate those.

This is one of the reasons why we are eliminating death

duties because of the delays and inconveniences and

difficulties which are inevitable as long as we retain

the old form of estate duty.

Estate Duty

Mr. Colley asked the Minister for Finance if his

attention has been drawn to a newspaper article

(details suplied) concerning the principal value of

property passing on death; and if he will make a state-

ment on the matter.

Mr. R. Ryan: The main point made in the article

is that difficulties can arise when share values fall

between the date of a person's death and the date of

payment of estate duty. The difficulties referred to

are, of course, not new. As the Deputy will

appreciate they could on a rising market operate in

the opposite direction so far as the Exchequer is con-