Finance Act 2012

Universal social charge: surcharge on use of property incentives.

3.— (1) Part 18D of the Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 531AAD:

“Property relief surcharge.

531AAE.— (1) In this section—

‘aggregate of the specified property reliefs’, in relation to a tax year and an individual, means the aggregate of the amounts of specified property reliefs used by the individual in respect of the tax year;

‘amount of specified property relief’, in relation to a specified relief used by an individual in respect of a tax year, means the amount of the specified property relief used by the individual in respect of the tax year, determined by reference to the entry in column (3) of Schedule 25B opposite the reference to the specified relief concerned in column (2) of that Schedule;

‘area-based capital allowance’, in relation to a tax year and an individual, means any allowance, or part of such allowance, made under Chapter 1 of Part 9 as that Chapter is applied—

(a) by section 323, 331, 332, 341, 342, 343, 344, 352, 353, 372C, 372D, 372M, 372N, 372V, 372W, 372AC or 372AD, or

(b) by virtue of paragraph 11 of Schedule 32,

for the tax year, including any such allowance, or part of any such allowance, made for a previous tax year and carried forward from that previous tax year in accordance with Part 9;

‘balancing allowance’ means any allowance made under section 274;

‘specified capital allowance’, in relation to a tax year and an individual, means any specified relief that is—

(a) a writing down allowance or a balancing allowance made for the tax year, or

(b) an allowance, or part of such allowance, made under Chapter 1 of Part 9 as that Chapter is applied by section 372AX, 372AY, 843 or 843A for the tax year,

including any such allowance or part of such allowance made for a previous tax year and carried forward from that tax year in accordance with Part 9;

‘specified individual’, in relation to a tax year, means an individual whose aggregate income for the tax year is €100,000 or more;

‘specified property relief’, in relation to a tax year and an individual, means—

(a) any allowance, or part of any allowance, specified in the definition of ‘area-based capital allowance’ or ‘specified capital allowance’, as the case may be, or

(b) any eligible expenditure within the meaning of Chapter 11 of Part 10, to which section 372AP applies, which is to be taken into account in computing under section 97(1) a deficiency in respect of any rent from a qualifying premises or a special qualifying premises, within the meaning of section 372AK;

‘specified relief’, in relation to a tax year and an individual, means any relief arising under, or by virtue of, any of the provisions set out in column (2) of Schedule 25B;

‘writing down allowance’ means any allowance made under section 272 and includes any such allowance as increased under section 273.

(2) Any reference in this section to any specified property relief being used in respect of any tax year shall be a reference to that part of that specified property relief to which full effect has been given for that tax year.

(3) The amount of universal social charge which is to be charged on the aggregate income for the tax year concerned of a specified individual under this Part shall be increased by an amount equal to 5 per cent of that part of that aggregate income in relation to which an amount of specified property relief or, as the case may be, the aggregate of the specified property reliefs, has been used by the specified individual in that tax year.

(4) For the purposes of this section—

(a) section 485C(3) and Schedule 25C (as if the references to the tax years 2006 and 2007 in that Schedule were references to the tax years 2011 and 2012, respectively) shall apply in determining the amount of any specified property relief to be carried forward from any tax year to each subsequent tax year, and

(b) any specified relief, which is a specified property relief, shall be treated as used in any tax year in priority to a specified relief which is not a specified property relief.

(5) Where universal social charge is payable for the tax year 2012 in respect of a specified individual’s aggregate income for a tax year, being an individual who is a chargeable person (within the meaning of Part 41), section 958 shall apply and have effect as if, in accordance with this section, universal social charge had been payable for the tax year 2011.”.

(2) Subsection (1) applies for the year of assessment 2012 and each subsequent year of assessment.