Finance Act, 1984

The relief.

12.—(1) This Chapter has effect for affording relief from income tax where—

(a) an individual who qualifies for the relief subscribes for eligible shares in a qualifying company;

(b) those shares are issued to him for the purpose of raising money for a qualifying trade which is being carried on by the company or which it intends to carry on; and

(c) the company provides satisfactory evidence, and it appears to the Revenue Commissioners after such consultation, if any, as may seem to them to be necessary with such person or body of persons as in their opinion may be of assistance to them, that the money was used, is being used or is intended to be used—

(i) for the purposes of—

(I) enabling the company, or enlarging its capacity, to undertake qualifying trading operations,

(II) enabling the company to engage in, or assisting the company in, research and development, the acquisition of technological information and data, the development of new or existing products or services or the provision of new products or services,

(III) enabling the company to identify new markets, and to develop new and existing markets, for its products and services, or

(IV) enabling the company to increase its sales of products or provision of services,

and

(ii) with a view to the creation or maintenance of employment in the company.

(2) In this Chapter “eligible shares” means new ordinary shares which, throughout the period of five years beginning with the date on which they are issued, carry no present or future preferential right to dividends or to a company's assets on its winding up and no present or future preferential right to be redeemed.

(3) The relief in respect of the amount subscribed by an individual for any eligible shares shall be given as a deduction of that amount from his total income for the year of assessment in which the shares are issued, and references in this Chapter to the amount of the relief are references to the amount of that deduction.

(4) The relief shall be given on a claim and shall not be allowed—

(a) unless and until the company has carried on the trade for four months; and

(b) if the company is not carrying on that trade at the time when the shares are issued, unless the company begins to carry it on within two years after that time.

(5) A claim for the relief may be allowed at any time after the trade has been carried on by the company for four months if the conditions for the relief are then satisfied; but no claim shall be allowed before the 1st day of January, 1985.

(6) In the case of a claim allowed before the end of the relevant period, the relief shall be withdrawn if by reason of any subsequent event it appears that the claimant was not entitled to the relief allowed.

(7) In this Chapter “the relevant period”, in relation to relief in respect of any eligible shares issued by a company, means—

(a) as respects sections 14 , 17 , 18 , 19 , and 20 , the period beginning with the incorporation of the company (or, if the company was incorporated more than two years before the date on which the shares were issued, beginning two years before that date) and ending five years after the issue of the shares; and

(b) as respects sections 15 , 16 , and 26 , the period beginning with the date on which the shares were issued and ending either three years after that date or, where the company was not at that date carrying on a qualifying trade, three years after the date on which it subsequently began to carry on such a trade.

(8) Where by reason of its being wound up, or dissolved without winding up, the company carries on the qualifying trade for a period shorter than four months, subsection (4) (a) shall have effect as if it referred to that shorter period but only if it is shown that the winding up or dissolution was for bona fide commercial reasons and not as part of a scheme or arrangement the main purpose or one of the main purposes of which was the avoidance of tax.

(9) All such provisions of the Income Tax Acts as apply in relation to the deductions specified in sections 138 to 143 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , shall, with any necessary modifications, apply in relation to relief under this Chapter.

(10) Subject to the provisions of section 25 , no account shall be taken of the relief, in so far as it is not withdrawn, in determining whether any sums are excluded by virtue of paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 to the Capital Gains Tax Act, 1975 , from the sums allowable as a deduction in the computation of gains and losses for the purposes of the Capital Gains Tax Acts.

(11) This section applies only where the shares concerned are issued in the year 1984-85 or either of the two years of assessment immediately following.