Start-Up Relief for Entrepreneurs (SURE) is a tax relief for individuals who leave full-time employment and start up their own business.
In general terms, relief under SURE is available for an individual who:
- Sets up a new company to carry out a new trade. Companies that carry on a trade previously carried out by another person do not qualify. Nor do many consulting companies, which carry on a profession rather than a trade, qualify.
- Gives up full-time employment elsewhere to take up full-time employment with the new company.
- Invests in ordinary share capital of the new company.
The relief available is based on the amount invested and the amount of tax paid, through the PAYE system, for the previous 6 years.
I am advised by Revenue that it is not possible to give an average time taken to issue a decision regarding approval or rejection. In the more straightforward cases, the application will normally be processed within a month while in the more complex cases, it can take up to 6 months before processing of the application is completed.
The time taken to process a SURE application depends on a number of factors including the complexity of the corporate structure of the company concerned and the extent and completeness of the supporting documentation presented with the application when it is initially made to Revenue.
Of the 29 applications received since 1 January 2018, 13 have been the subject of additional information requests by Revenue.
As the Deputy may be aware, I announced that a review of both the EII and SURE incentives was to be carried out this year. That review is now under way and is being conducted by Indecon Economic Consultants. Amongst other matters, it will consider operational aspects of the scheme.