Revenue have published Pensions (Incentive Tax Credits) Regulations on foot of the FA06 legislation to encourage people to re-invest SSIA proceeds into pensions products. These regulations will mainly be of interest to the pensions industry and set out:

• Procedures for registration by pension providers in order to obtain tax credits in relation to pension subscriptions made by holders of SSIAs
• Procedures to be used to correct errors made in a claim for tax credits
• Powers for the Revenue Commissioners to publish guidance notes for the assistance of pension providers.

Revenue's general explanatory note on the Incentive Scheme has also been updated, in an attempt it would appear to at least recognise that the incentive is not of great assistance, and in fact may be counterproductive, for those taxpayers who pay tax at 42% and have not used their full entitlement to the usual tax reliefs for pension contributions. In this regard, the “simplification” of the rules published by Revenue some weeks ago, which ignores the statutory requirement not to have paid tax at 42%, has not had the desired result. The full explanatory note is reproduced at 2.02 below.