The power of the EU’s Competition Division continues to creep up. From 1 July 2016, EU member states are required to publish information regarding certain State Aid granted to individual beneficiaries on a central website. This transparency is supposed to encourage accountability.

A number of Irish tax relief schemes constitute State Aid and tax relief granted under 6 of these schemes will be subject to the new transparency requirements.

It is understood from eBrief 62/16 that the reliefs and relevant thresholds are as follows:

• Capital Gains Tax Entrepreneur Relief (S597A TCA 1997) – €500,000
• Employment Investment Incentive Scheme (S488 to 507 TCA 1997) – €500,000
• Relief for investment in films (S481 TCA 1997) – €500,000
• Capital Gains Tax Relief for farm restructuring (S604B TCA 1997) – €60,000
• Stock relief for young trained farmers (S667B TCA 1997) – €60,000
• Stamp duty relief for transfers of land to young trained farmers (S81AA SDCA 1999) – €60,000

More details can be found on the European Commission website.