The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation has said it is 'very disappointed' that the Minister for Finance had failed to respond to appeals to allow VAT to be refundable on corporate spending on conferences, incentive travel and corporate meetings in hotels and restaurants.
It described this as a 'self-imposed competitive disadvantage' which puts us out of line with most other European countries.
While welcoming the raising by €2,500 of the VAT threshold for small businesses, ITIC said this was 'a wholly inadequate response', particularly since the present level of €25,500 was set as far back as 1994.
The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) also called on the Minister for Finance to address the VAT issue.
'All of Ireland's European competitors with a VAT rate of over 10% allow business tourism such as conferences, incentives and major corporate meetings to reclaim VAT on hotel expenditure,' it said. But the IHF acknowledged the clarity given in the Budget today for the phasing out of hotel capital allowances.
