Finance Act 2014

Amendment of Part 16 of Principal Act (income tax relief for investment in corporate trades — employment and investment incentive and seed capital scheme)

27. (1) Part 16 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in section 488(1) —

(i) by inserting the following definition:

“‘internationally traded financial services’ means the services specified in the schedule to the Industrial Development (Service Industries) Order 2010 ( S.I. No. 81 of 2010 ) other than those falling within the meaning of subparagraph (b) or (c) of the definition of ‘relevant trading activities’;”,

(ii) by substituting the following for the definition of “relevant period”:

“‘relevant period’, in relation to relief in respect of any eligible shares issued by a company, means—

(a) subject to paragraphs (b), (c) and (d), the period beginning on the date on which the shares were issued and ending 4 years after that date or, where the company was not at that date carrying on relevant trading activities, 4 years after the date on which it subsequently began to carry on such activities,

(b) as respects a relevant employment, the period beginning on the date on which the shares are issued or, if later, the date on which the employment commences and ending 12 months after that date,

(c) as respects a specified individual, the period beginning on the date on which the shares are issued and ending either one year after that date or, where the company was not at that date carrying on relevant trading activities, one year after the date on which it subsequently began to carry on such activities, and

(d) as respects sections 489(2)(b) and 501(1)(a)(iii) and the definitions of ‘average relevant amount’ and ‘employment relevant number’ in this subsection, the period beginning on the date on which the shares were issued and ending 3 years after that date or, where the company was not at that date carrying on relevant trading activities, 3 years after the date on which it subsequently began to carry on such activities;”,

(iii) in the definition of “relevant trading activities” by deleting paragraph (h), and

(iv) in the definition of “specified period” by substituting “4 years” for “3 years”,

(b) in section 489(2) —

(i) in paragraph (a) by substituting “thirty fortieths” for “thirty forty-firsts”, and

(ii) in paragraph (b) by substituting “ten fortieths” for “eleven forty-firsts”,

(c) in section 491—

(i) in subsection (2) by substituting “€15,000,000” for “€10,000,000”,

(ii) in subsection (3) by substituting “€15,000,000” for “€10,000,000”, and

(iii) in subsection (4) by substituting “€5,000,000” for “€2,500,000”,

(d) in section 492(3) by substituting “4 years” for “3 years”,

(e) in section 494—

(i) in subsection (1) by deleting the definition of “assisted area”,

(ii) by substituting the following for subsection (4):

“(4) The company shall be a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise within the meaning of Annex 1 to Commission Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 1 .”,

and

(iii) by substituting the following for subsection (5):

“(5) A company whose relevant trading activities includes internationally traded financial services shall not be a qualifying company unless it is in receipt of a certificate from Enterprise Ireland to the effect that its activities are of a kind specified in the schedule to the Industrial Development (Service Industries) Order 2010 ( S.I. No. 81 of 2010 ).”,

(f) in section 501 by inserting the following after subsection (8):

“(9) A claim for relief under section 489(2) or 493 in respect of eligible shares in a company shall not be allowed unless, at the time the claim is made, the company qualifies for a tax clearance certificate within the meaning of section 1095.”,

and

(g) in section 507(1) by substituting the following for “section 7.1 of the Community Guidelines on State Aid to Promote Risk Capital Investments in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises2 .”:

“section 5.4 of the Community Guidelines on State aid to promote risk finance investments 3 .”.

(2) (a) Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) shall apply for the year of assessment 2015 and subsequent years.

(b) Paragraphs (a) and (c) to (g) of subsection (1) shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister for Finance may by order or orders appoint and different days may be appointed for different purposes or different provisions.

1OJ No. L187, 26.6.2014, p.1

2OJ No. C194, 18.8.2006, p.2

3OJ No. C19, 22.1.2014, p.4