How to safeguard your income against any illness or injury.

​Income Protection is a policy that pays you a portion of your income in the event you are unable to work due to illness or injury and covers you until you are either fit to return to work or reach retirement age. Income Protection is widely considered the most valuable protection policy one can have due to the frequency of claims and average payout.

Since 1 January 2021, the UK is no longer a part of the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union, which has implications around VAT for businesses operating in the Republic of Ireland that import from the UK. The Irish government has introduced a facility called postponed VAT accounting for VAT registered businesses to avoid the payment of import VAT at the point of entry.

This new measure allows you to record the VAT on your VAT return rather than paying it at the point of entry into the State but will not apply to goods brought in from Northern Ireland.

For the past number of weeks, headlines have highlighted the negative impact of the new Trade and Co-Operation Agreement (TCA) that has come from Brexit. However, in the words of Albert Einstein “In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”. Read on to discover five such opportunities that you could capitalise on.

The scheme announced by Fáilte Ireland is for the tourism sector and is called the Tourism Business Continuity Scheme. The allocation of funds for this scheme was announced during Budget 2021 and delivers a small reprieve for the struggling industry.

Under the €55 million fund, businesses can apply for grants of between €3,750 and €200,000. To be eligible for the scheme, a business must:

• record a monthly turnover from October 2020 to January 2021 that is less than 25% of its average monthly turnover in 2019
• have a minimum annual turnover of €50,000 and minimum fixed costs of 10% of turnover
• not be eligible to apply for the CRSS (Covid Restrictions Support Scheme) or have received funding through the Fáilte Ireland Coach Tourism Business Continuity Scheme or Ireland Based Inbound Agents Business Continuity Scheme.

​Applications opened on February 11th on www.failteireland.ie/ business-continuity-scheme.aspx