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Special Assignee Relief Programme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 December 2013

Thursday, 19 December 2013

Questions (108)

Róisín Shortall

Question:

108. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Finance the number of persons to date who have taken up the special assignee relief programme; the number of employers whose employees have taken up the programme; the amount of tax foregone to date as a result of this measure; the number of jobs he believes have been created under the programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55065/13]

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Written answers

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: 7

Numbers of employers with employees availing: 7

Amount of tax forgone: €60,600 (tax free income of 147,817 by 41% for 7 individuals only)

Numbers of employees for whom education fees were paid: none

Amount of education fees paid: € nil

Number of jobs created: 5

The 7 individuals qualifying for the relief received an aggregate total tax-free remuneration of €147,817 and the amount of tax forgone is estimated assuming the top rate of income tax rate of 41%.

Following a review of SARP claims it was identified that 3 claims did not satisfy the eligibility criteria and the relief was found to be not appropriate for 2012. The statistics have, therefore, been updated to exclude these claims, and this accounts for the decrease in some of the figures that were provided with previous information.

More limited details of further claims were also provided as follows in the Form 11 tax returns for 2012 filed under the self-assessment system in October/November of 2013.

Numbers of employees availing of the scheme: 8

Estimated amount of tax forgone: €63,600 (rounded to nearest €100), on the basis of tax free income of €154,720 at an assumed tax rate of 41%.

Other information such as numbers of employers associated with employees availing of the scheme, numbers of employees for whom education fees were paid and amount of education fees paid is not required to be provided by taxpayers in the Form 11 tax return and is therefore not available.

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