Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 October 2020
214. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Finance if a distinction is made across the various enterprise tax schemes such as employee investment incentive, EII, key employee engagement programme, KEEP, and capital gains tax, CGT, entrepreneur relief for high risk and high potential innovation start-ups as opposed to more traditional asset-backed enterprises; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31109/20]
View answerI am advised by Revenue that no distinction is made across the various enterprise tax schemes such as the Employee Investment Incentive (EII), Key Employee Engagement Programme (KEEP) and CGT entrepreneur relief for high risk and high potential start-ups. Each scheme has its own specific criteria which must be fulfilled for qualification for that individual relief.
KEEP is a focussed share option programme, intended to help SMEs attract and retain talent in a highly competitive labour market, while the EII is a tax relief which aims to encourage individuals to provide equity based finance to trading companies. These reliefs operate through payroll taxes. Both schemes are subject to the requirements relating to size and apply only to micro-enterprises and SMEs carrying out qualifying trades.
The revised CGT Entrepreneur Relief CGT applies in respect of a chargeable gain or chargeable gains on a disposal or disposals of qualifying business assets on or after 1 January 2016 up to a lifetime limit of €1 million. This relief operates through the capital gains tax system and is subject to certain conditions and qualifying criteria that must be met prior to disposal.
