Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 September 2020
269. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the anticipated savings to the Exchequer in 2021, in tabular form, from the ending the employment and investment incentive, the key employee engagement programme, the special assignee relief programme and the foreign earnings deduction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23733/20]
View answer270. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the anticipated savings to the Exchequer in 2021 from the ending rent-a-room relief; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23734/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 269 and 270 together.
The latest costs available for the Employment & Investment Incentive (EII), the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP), Foreign Earnings Deduction (FED) and Rent-A-Room Relief can be found in the Cost of Tax Expenditures report which is published on the Revenue website at link: https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/tax-expenditures/costs-tax-expenditures.pdf.
A summary table can also be found below.
These costs can be assumed to be broadly indicative of the savings to the Exchequer if the reliefs were ended for a given year. However, this does not take account of changes in taxpayer behaviour or the secondary economic benefit provided by the reliefs.
Regarding the Key Employee Engagement Scheme (KEEP), I am advised by Revenue that 10 companies granted qualifying share options to 87 key employees during 2018 (the first year of the scheme). Generally, a key employee must hold the option for 12 months prior to exercise and, as such, 2019 was the earliest date that individuals could exercise their options to acquire shares in the qualifying companies. Returns for 2019 will not be filed with Revenue until later in 2020 so no information is available at this time. The Deputy may also wish to note that KEEP options may be exercised for up to 10 years from the date of grant and therefore it is not certain when the first exercises will occur.
|
Measure |
Cost |
|
SARP |
€28.1 million (2017 - the most recent year for which figures have been published) |
|
FED |
€5.4 million (2018) |
|
Rent-A-Room Relief |
€19.7 million (2018) |
|
KEEP |
- |
