Although the Savings Tax Directive has been operative since 1 July of this year, the commencement orders relating to the regime have only now come to hand. Two statutory instruments give effect to the provisions of Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA97) which apply the Savings Tax regime.

S.I. 286 of 2005

This provides for the commencement of TCA97 ss. 898H, 898I,898J, 898L and 898M with effect from 1 July 2005.

S.I. 317 of 2005

This Instrument ensures that the Irish legislation implementing the Savings Tax Directive will apply to interest payments made from Ireland to individuals resident in the dependent and associated territories of the UK and the Netherlands who have put in place arrangements to ensure that either exchange of information with Ireland takes place on an automatic basis in respect of interest payments made from those territories to Irish residents or that a withholding tax will apply to interest payments made from those territories to residents of Ireland as and from 1 July 2005. Such arrangements to apply from 1 July 2005 have been put in place by all the relevant dependent and associated territories.

It also amends Chapter 3A of Part 38 of TCA97 to exclude collective investment undertakings established in Ireland from the provisions, and makes a technical amendment to reflect the correct interpretation of the derogations in the Savings Directive.

The full text of the Statutory Instruments is reproduced at Section 2.01