The Tax Strategy Group is the inter-departmental Government forum which considers proposals in the run-up to the Budget and Finance Bill, and selected notes of their meetings have been published this month.

While it is always helpful to see the issues which were being examined, the really interesting stuff probably suffers from the application of the official black marker prior to publication. The papers remain of interest in understanding the processes leading to changes which were in fact made.

It would seem that changes over and above those introduced in Finance Act 2006 were considered up to the last moment in relation, for example, to Leasing Losses, Interest relief, the R&D Tax Credit and VAT Grouping. Past experience would tell us that matters are often rolled forward from year to year, so we could well see these areas receiving further treatment in Finance Act 2007.

A full list of the papers is available at http://www.finance.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?Docid=3989.