The Department of Finance announced earlier this month that consultations are to open on the Employment and Investment Incentive, the Seed Capital Scheme, the Special Assignee Relief Programme and the Foreign Earnings Deduction. Consultation papers have been published by the Department, and responses are requested by 9 May next.

Successive pre-Budget and pre-Finance Bill submissions by this Institute have highlighted shortcomings in the EII, SCS, FED & SARP. Members concerns have largely centred round the eligibility criteria for the SARP, the relevance of the countries targeted by the FED, and the amount of tax relief available under the EII and SCS. We will be taking this opportunity to restate points already made to Government in the context of the Finance Act cycle over the past several years, and highlight additional member concerns. A bad tax relief is worse than useless; its existence blocks the introduction of a good tax relief.

This review is a follow-through on one of the more positive ideas in the Action Plan for Jobs, which promised a re-examination of some of the existing tax incentives (further details here). The consultation documents are to be found on the Tax Policy website.

If there are any specific points you would like included in Institute submissions, please e-mail us at tax@charteredaccountants.ie.