24 Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Finance his estimate of the yield from applying income tax to approved profit sharing schemes. [4302/11]

If an employee is given free shares by his or her employer, the employee is normally chargeable to income tax on the value of the shares, just as the employee would be chargeable to income tax on the value of a cash bonus. However, where the shares are awarded by an employer to an employee through a Revenue approved profit sharing scheme, the employees are not chargeable to income tax on the value of the shares awarded, subject to a general annual limit of €12,700 on the value of shares. The cost to the Exchequer is essentially the income tax forgone on the value of any shares awarded under such schemes. I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the cost to the Exchequer of this tax relief is estimated at €99 million for the income tax year 2008, the most recent year for which final information is available.

As regards the yield from a possible withdrawal of the tax relief it should be borne in mind that the scale of any such yield would arise in terms of current values which, in view of the impact of the recession, might now be less than those underlying the 2008 cost.