18 Schedule D

Summary

Income tax is charged under Schedule D in respect of a number of sources of income which are classified into 5 separate Cases. A charge to tax under Schedule D or one of its constituent Cases may also be imposed by a provision of the Income Tax Acts other than this section.

Details

The Schedule D charge

(1)1 Tax under Schedule D is charged on the annual profits/gains arising or accruing —

• (1)1(a)(i) to any person residing in the State from any kind of property whatever, whether the property is situated in the State or elsewhere;
• (1)1(a)(ii) to any person residing in the State from any trade, profession or employment, whether carried on in the State or elsewhere;
• (1)1(a)(iii) to any non-resident person, whether a citizen of Ireland or not, from any property whatever in the State or from any trade, profession or employment exercised in the State; and
• (1)1(a)(iv) to any non-resident person, whether a citizen of Ireland or not, from the sale of any goods, wares or merchandise manufactured or partly manufactured by such person in the State.

(1) 1(b) Tax under Schedule D is also charged on all interest of money, annuities and other annual profits/gains not charged under Schedule C or E and not specially exempt from tax.

(1) 1 The tax in each case is to be charged for every one euro of the annual amount of the profits/gains.

(1)2 Profits/gains arising from an office, employment or pension, however, are not to be charged to tax under Schedule D unless they are chargeable to tax under Case III of that Schedule.

The 5 Cases

(2) The income sources chargeable to tax under Schedule D are classified into 5 cases.

Case I charges tax in respect of any trade and in respect of profits/gains arising out of lands, etc used for quarrying, mining, waterworks, docks, fishing, tolls, ferries, fairs, markets, etc.

Case II charges tax in respect of any profession not contained in any other Schedule.

Case III charges tax on —

• interest, annuities and other annual payments, excluding any payment chargeable under Case V (in effect the Case III charge only arises where the interest, annuity or other annual payment is not liable to Irish tax at source);
• profits from discount transactions (a discount arises on the purchase/sale of Government stock, promissory notes, bills of exchange, and the Case III charge arises on the difference between the cost of the instrument and the amount realised on sale or maturity. Certain discounts are exempt from tax – see sections 45, 46 and 48. Discounts received or given in the ordinary course of trade are not included in the Case III charge);
• interest on Government stocks, excluding interest on such stocks charged under Schedule C;
• interest on any securities issued, or deemed within the meaning of section 36 to be issued, under the authority of the Minister for Finance, in cases where such interest is paid without deduction of tax (for example, Irish Government stocks issued under the authority of the Minister for Finance and stocks of semi-State companies);
• interest from foreign securities, excluding interest on such securities charged under Schedule C; and
• income from foreign possessions (for example, income from a foreign employment and profits from businesses carried on wholly abroad. In the case of a foreign employment, the Case III charge does not include earnings (including any amount in the form of expenses payments received or benefits-in-kind derived) from the employment to the extent that those earnings are attributable to the performance in the State of the duties of the employment. Such earnings are, by virtue of paragraph 2 of Schedule D and paragraph 3 of Schedule E, chargeable to tax under Schedule E.

The Case III charge on interest from foreign securities and income from foreign possessions is modified in the case of non-domiciled persons and Irish citizens not ordinarily resident in the State so that the charge is confined to the sums actually remitted to the State (see section 71). It should also be noted that certain foreign pensions are exempt from the Case III charge where the pension would have been exempt from tax in the country of origin had the person receiving it continued to reside in that country (section 200). The Case III charge is extended by section 55 to gains on strips of securities where a Case I charge does not arise and by section 57 to benefits in kind received in respect of foreign employments

Case IV charges tax in respect of any annual profits or gains not within any other Case of Schedule D and not charged by virtue of any other Schedule.

Income, etc within the Case IV charge may be divided into 2 categories, namely, the miscellaneous income not within any other Case or Schedule and the income statutorily directed to be charged under Case IV.

Income within the first category has been decided by case law. Examples include profits of a casual nature, profits from hire of moveable assets (for example, farmer hiring machinery for isolated jobs), letting of premises where landlord/tenant relationship does not exist (for example, halls for dances, meetings, etc), shipping fees, green fees, casual literary fees, certain copyright royalties.

Instances where a Case IV charge has been imposed by statute include profits from unlawful activities (section 58), income from which tax is deducted at source (section 59), post-cessation receipts of a trade/profession (section 91), mining rents and gains from dealings in leases and conveyances (Chapter 8 of Part 4), DIRT interest (Chapter 3 of Part 8), certain balancing charges (Part 9), refunds of pension contributions and excessive commutation payments under pension schemes (Chapter 1 of Part 30), withdrawal of various tax reliefs (for example, BES/film relief, etc), various anti-avoidance provisions countering the transfer of assets abroad, conversion of income into capital and schemes connected with the payment of interest on loans (Part 33), maintenance payments (section 1025).

Case V charges tax on rent in respect of land or premises in the State and on receipts for easements (that is, any right, privilege or benefit in, over or derived from any land or premises in the State such as the right to erect advertising boards).

Schedule D charge may also be imposed by other provisions

(3) This section is without prejudice to any other provision of the Income Tax Acts directing tax to be charged under Schedule D or under one or other of the Cases mentioned in subsection (2). This allows a Schedule D charge or a charge under one of its constituent Cases to be imposed by way of a provision other than the actual Schedule or Case. Examples of such charges are to be found in Chapter 1 of Part 4 (Schedule D – supplementary charging provisions).

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2019