Income Tax Act, 1967.

PART XII

Special Provisions as to Pensions, Pension Schemes, Retirement Annuities and Purchased Life Annuities

Chapter I

Superannuation

Exemption of superannuation funds.

222.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section and to any regulations made thereunder, exemption from income tax shall be allowed in respect of income derived from investments or deposits of a superannuation fund, and, subject as aforesaid, any sum paid by an employer or employed person by way of contribution towards a superannuation fund shall, in computing profits or gains for the purpose of an assessment to income tax under Case I or Case II of Schedule D or under Schedule E, be allowed to be deducted as an expense incurred in the year in which the sum is paid:

Provided that no allowance shall be made under the foregoing provision in respect of any contribution by an employed person which is not an ordinary annual contribution, and, where a contribution by an employer is not an ordinary annual contribution, it shall, for the purpose of the foregoing provision, be treated as the Commissioners may direct, either as an expense incurred in the year in which the sum is paid or as an expense to be spread over such period of years as the Commissioners think proper.

(2) Income tax chargeable in respect of an annuity paid out of a superannuation fund to a person residing in the State shall, if the Commissioners so direct, be assessed and charged on the annuitant under Schedule E instead of being deducted and accounted for under section 434 and tax shall be computed on the full amount of the annuity arising in the year of assessment.

(3) For the purposes of this section, “superannuation fund” means, unless the context otherwise requires, a fund which is approved for those purposes, by the Commissioners, and, subject as hereinafter provided, the Commissioners shall not approve any fund unless it is shown to their satisfaction that—

(a) the fund is a fund bona fide established under irrevocable trusts in connection with some trade or undertaking carried on in the State by a person residing therein;

(b) the fund has for its sole purpose the provision of annuities for all or any of the following persons in the events respectively specified, that is to say, for persons employed in the trade or undertaking, either on retirement at a specified age, or on becoming incapacitated at some earlier age, or for the widows, children, or dependants of persons who are or have been so employed, on the death of those persons;

(c) the employer in the trade or undertaking is a contributor to the fund;

(d) the fund is recognised by the employer and employed persons in the trade or undertaking:

Provided that the Commissioners may, if they think fit, and subject to such conditions, if any, as they think proper to attach to the approval, approve a fund, or any part of a fund, as a superannuation fund for the purposes of this section—

(i) notwithstanding that the rules of the fund provide for the return in certain contingencies of contributions paid to the fund; or

(ii) if the main purpose of the fund is the provision of such annuities as aforesaid, notwithstanding that such provision is not its sole purpose; or

(iii) notwithstanding that the trade or undertaking in connection with which the fund is established is carried on only partly in the State and by a person not residing therein.

(4) The Commissioners may make regulations generally for the purpose of carrying this section into effect and, in particular, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, may by such regulations—

(a) provide for the charging of and accounting for tax in respect of contributions (including interest) repaid to a contributor to a superannuation fund and on lump sums paid in commutation of or in lieu of annuities payable out of a superannuation fund as if any sums so repaid or paid were income of the year in which they are repaid or paid;

(b) require the trustees or other persons having the management of a superannuation fund, or an employer whose employees contribute to a superannuation fund to deliver to the Commissioners such information and particulars as the Commissioners may reasonably require for the purposes of this section;

(c) prescribe the manner in which claims for relief under this section are to be made and approved, and in which applications for the approval of a superannuation fund are to be made;

(d) provide for the withdrawal of approval in the case of a fund which ceases to satisfy the requirements of this section;

(e) provide for determining what contributions to a superannuation fund are to be treated as ordinary annual contributions for the purposes of this section.

(5) In this section “the Commissioners” means the Revenue Commissioners.