Farm VAT rebate changes
Deputy Cahill objected to Revenue excluding items such as slurry bags and calf feeders from VAT reclamation for unregistered farmers. The Minister said the matter would be referred to the finance Minister, who would engage with Revenue.
I raise a Revenue issue with the Minister. Farmers who are unregistered for VAT have always been able to reclaim it for infrastructural projects on their farms. In the past couple of months, Revenue has started to exclude items from that list, for example, slurry bags, automatic calf feeders, bulk milk tanks and automatic scrapers. This is completely unjustified by Revenue. It completely changes the VAT treatment for farmers unregistered for VAT. I request that the Government open dialogue with Revenue to get these decisions reversed. If they are not reversed, the whole issue of the VAT rebate rate for farmers, which is currently set at 4.8%, has to be revisited.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Undoubtedly, it will be a source of concern for farmers throughout the country. I will relay in detail his question to the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and ask him to engage with Revenue on exactly this issue.