Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 January 2013
81. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Finance the number of companies who availed of the special assignee relief programme tax relief in 2012; the number of persons who benefitted from the relief and the income profile of these persons; the total cost to the State of the scheme in 2012; and the total number of jobs that are directly attributable to the existence of the scheme. [3457/13]
View answerSection 14 of Finance Act 2012 introduced the Special Assignee Relief Programme which is designed to reduce the cost to employers of assigning key individuals in their companies from abroad to take up positions in the Irish based operations of their employer. Paragraph 10 of Section 14 provides that relevant employers must submit an annual return to the Revenue Commissioners detailing, inter alia, the number of employees and the amounts of exempt income claimed under the programme. This return was not sought until after the end of the tax year 2012 in order to ensure that an accurate picture of take up levels over a full tax year could be provided. Therefore, given that 2012 is the first year of the programme, reliable statistics on its uptake will not be available until later this year.
