The Corporation Tax (Northern Ireland) Act 2015 is to be amended so that SMEs who do not meet the SME test in the legislation will be able to avail of the regime for large companies if they have a Northern Ireland regional establishment (NIRE). The change is welcomed by the NI Tax Committee who made this recommendation in its submission on the draft NICT rate legislation in 2015.

Legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2017 to give an option for an SME which is not a NI employer but has a NIRE to elect to use the large company rules for identifying profits and losses to which the NI rate applies.

As advised in previous Chartered Accountants Tax News updates, the government will commence the Act and devolution of the power will be completed once the Northern Ireland Executive demonstrates its finances are on a sustainable footing. The Northern Ireland Executive has committed to setting a rate of 12.5% in April 2018.

Download Chartered Accountants Ireland’s briefing note on the legislation now. Note that this briefing note will be amended in due course once the detail of the proposed changes for SMEs is known and has been enacted.

In 2016, the NI Tax Committee was very active on member’s behalf and made 14 submissions on tax matters relevant to members, including 5 submissions on Making Tax Digital. The majority of these can be viewed under the Tax Representations section of our website.