Finance Act 2005

Common contractual funds.

44.—The Principal Act is amended—

(a) in the definition of “collective investment undertaking” in section 172A(1)(a)—

(i) by deleting “or” in subparagraph (ii),

(ii) by inserting “or” after “ Finance Act, 2000 ),” in subparagraph (iii), and

(iii) by inserting the following after subparagraph (iii):

“(iv) a common contractual fund within the meaning of section 739I (inserted by the Finance Act 2005),”,

(b) in the definition of “investment undertaking” in section 246(1)—

(i) by deleting “or” in paragraph (b),

(ii) by substituting “section 739B, or” for “section 739B;” in paragraph (c), and

(iii) by inserting the following after paragraph (c):

“(d) a common contractual fund within the meaning given to it in section 739I (inserted by the Finance Act 2005);”,

(c) in section 739C—

(i) in subsection (1) by deleting “, subject to subsection (1A),”, and

(ii) by deleting subsection (1A),

and

(d) by inserting the following after section 739H—

“Common contractual funds.

739I.—(1) (a) In this section ‘common contractual fund’ means—

(i) a collective investment undertaking being an unincorporated body established by a management company under which the participants by contractual arrangement participate and share in the property of the collective investment undertaking as co-owners, where it is expressly stated under its deed of constitution to be established pursuant to an Act of the Oireachtas and which holds an authorisation issued in accordance with such Act and which is not established pursuant to Council Directive No. 85/611/EEC of 20 December 19851 , as amended by Council Directive No. 88/220/EEC of 22 March 19882 and Directive No. 95/26/EC of the Council and of the European Parliament of 29 June 19953 , or

(ii) an investment undertaking within the meaning of paragraph (b) of the definition of ‘investment undertaking’ which is constituted otherwise than under trust law or statute law.

(b) For the purposes of this section the definitions of ‘relevant gains’, ‘relevant income’, ‘relevant payment’, ‘relevant profits’, ‘unit’ and ‘unit holder’ shall apply, with any necessary modifications, to a collective investment undertaking within the meaning of paragraph (i) of the definition of ‘common contractual fund’ as they apply to an investment undertaking within the meaning of paragraph (b) of the definition of ‘investment undertaking’.

(2) (a) Notwithstanding anything in the Tax Acts and subject to subsections (3) and (4), a common contractual fund shall not be chargeable to tax in respect of relevant profits.

(b) For the purposes of the Tax Acts, relevant income and relevant gains in relation to a common contractual fund shall be treated as arising, or as the case may be, accruing, to each unit holder of the common contractual fund in proportion to the value of the units beneficially owned by the unit holder, as if the relevant income and relevant gains had arisen or, as the case may be, accrued, to the unit holders in the common contractual fund without passing through the hands of the common contractual fund.

(3) Subsection (2) shall only apply where each of the units of the common contractual fund—

(a) is an asset of a pension fund or beneficially owned by a person other than an individual, or

(b) is held by a custodian or trustee for the benefit of a person other than an individual.

(4) Every common contractual fund shall in respect of each year of assessment, on or before 28 February in the year following the year of assessment, make a statement (including where it is the case, a statement with a nil amount) to the Revenue Commissioners in electronic format approved by them, which in respect of each year of assessment—

(a) specifies the total amount of relevant profits arising to the common contractual fund in respect of units in that fund, and

(b) specifies in respect of each person who is a unit holder—

(i) the name and address of the person,

(ii) the amount of the relevant profits to which the person is entitled, and

(iii) such other information as the Revenue Commissioners may require.

(5) Notwithstanding Chapter 4 of Part 8, that Chapter shall apply to a deposit (within the meaning of that Chapter) to which a common contractual fund is for the time being entitled as if such deposit were not a relevant deposit within the meaning of that Chapter.”.

1OJ No. L375/3, 31.12.1985

2OJ No. L100/31, 19.4.1988

3OJ No. L168/7, 18.7.1995