Finance Act, 1972

Charge to tax on repayment of employee's contributions.

21.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, tax shall be charged under this section on any repayment to an employee during his lifetime of any contributions (including interest on contributions, if any) if the payment is made under—

(a) a scheme which is or has at any time been an exempt approved scheme, or

(b) a statutory scheme established under a public statute.

(2) Where any payment is chargeable to tax under this section, the administrator of the scheme shall be charged to income tax under Case IV of Schedule D, and subject to subsection (3), the rate of the tax shall be 10 per cent.

(3) (a) The Minister for Finance may by order from time to time increase or decrease the rate of tax under subsection (2).

(b) Every order under paragraph (a) shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next twenty-one days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(4) The tax shall be charged on the amount paid or, if the rules of the relevant scheme permit its administrator to deduct the tax before payment, on the amount before deduction of tax, and the amount so charged to tax shall not be treated as income for any other purpose of the Income Tax Acts.

(5) (a) Subsection (1) (a) shall not apply in relation to a contribution made after the scheme ceases to be an exempt approved scheme (unless it again becomes an exempt approved scheme).

(b) Subsection (1) (b) shall not apply to any payment made before the 6th day of April, 1973.

(6) This section shall not apply where the employee's employment was carried on outside the State.

(7) In this section and in section 22, “employee”, in relation to a statutory scheme, includes an officer.