EMPLOYEE SHARE SCHEMES – EXTENDED DEADLINES

Return of information relating to Unapproved Share Option Schemes for 2009 is usually due for submission on or before 31 March 2010. Revenue has decided to issue a new form that will incorporate Form SO2 (return of information in respect of share options) and Form CSI (return of information in respect of convertible securities). As the availability of the new form has been delayed, Revenue has extended the submission deadline until 9 July 2010.

Revenue has extended deadlines from 31 March 2010 to 15 May 2010 for 2009 information relating to share schemes for the following forms, which were late in issuing:

back to top >>

The 80% ‘windfall tax’, introduced by the NAMA legislation has been amended in the 2010 Finance Act. The ‘windfall tax’ will introduce an exemption for disposals of small sites (under one acre) that have a market value below €250,000. The ‘windfall tax’ also extends the remit of the tax to profits or gains attributable to planning decisions, which may be in contravention of the development plan for the area. The Act provides that restrictions will apply on allowable capital gains tax losses in cases where arrangements were in place to secure a tax advantage.

CHANGES TO R&D TAX CREDIT IN FINANCE ACT 2010

The Research & Development (R&D) Tax Credit introduced in the 2009 Finance Act has been extended in the 2010 Finance Act. The existing R&D Tax Credit regime has been amended to cover companies that carry out R&D activities in different facilities in separate geographical locations when activities in one of these facilities is permanently discontinued. The Finance Act introduces a concession for the calculation of the base year in the situation where a company closes down, or ceases to carry on a trade in one of its ‘R&D Centres’. This concession will be available for accounting periods commencing on or after 1 January 2010.

EXTENSION OF CORPORATION TAX RELIEF

The Finance Act (No 2) 2008, provided for a three-year corporation tax exemption on profits and certain capital gains where the corporation tax liability would not have exceeded €40,000 per annum. Marginal relief applies where the total corporation tax liability is between €40,000 and €60,000. The minister signed the commencement order in December 2009.

The exemption applies to companies incorporated after 14 October 2008, which commenced a qualifying trade in 2009. In the Finance Act 2010, this relief was extended to companies commencing qualifying trades in 2010.

REVENUE EMAIL SCAM

Revenue has warned taxpayers of a fraudulent email headed ‘Revenue Irish Tax & Customs’ purporting to come from Revenue. The email claims to seek personal information in connection with a tax refund. This is the latest in a succession of scams targeting Irish taxpayers and did not issue from Revenue.

VALUE ADDED TAX – BAD DEBT RELIEF

Revenue has issued a new information leaflet on bad debt relief for VAT purposes. The leaflet outlines the circumstances in which Revenue considers a debt eligible to be written off for the purposes of relief. Specifically, the bad debt must be written off in the day-to-day records of the business and transferred from the debtors account to a separate bad debt account.A trader is not required to wait until the financial year end to write off the debt but may do so in the VAT return for the taxable period in which the debt is transferred to the bad debt account. Before the debt is written off as a bad debt, all ‘reasonable efforts’ should have been made to recover the debt. The leaflet is available on the Revenue website
(www.revenue.ie).