Consultants to examine tax incentives

THE Department of Finance has appointed two consulting firms to carry out a review of tax incentive schemes.

In the last budget, Brian Cowen announced the department would be looking into the various tax relief and incentives schemes following criticism that wealthy individuals and industries abuse the system.

Mr Cowen said the various tax relief schemes cost some e8 billion, but while much of this was of benefit to ordinary people, €200 million was in the form of tax breaks to promote industries. The minister said he would be reviewing these tax incentive schemes to see if they were still necessary.