Section 14 of Finance Act 2012 introduced the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) 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.
The first year of the programme was 2012 and employer returns received to date for 2012 have provided the following results:
Numbers of employees availing of the scheme: 6
Numbers of employers with employees availing: 5
Amount of tax forgone: €16,300 (tax free income of €39,767 by 41% for 2 individuals only)
Numbers of employees for whom education fees were paid: 1
Amount of education fees paid: €2,500
Number of jobs created: 26
Number of jobs retained: 2
Of the 6 individuals who qualified for the relief, 2 of them received an aggregate total tax-free remuneration of €39,767 and the amount of tax forgone is estimated assuming the top rate of income tax rate of 41%.
It is expected that the 4 individuals who are not reported in the employer returns as receiving tax-free remuneration are expected to claim it when they submit Form 11 tax returns for 2012 in late 2013.
It is possible that not all employers have submitted a SARP return yet. Also, the figures provided do not include the details for claims that are not included in employer returns received to date but will be made in the Form 11 tax returns for 2012 to be filed under the self-assessment system in October/November of 2013.
