Corporate Exit Tax

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Exit tax regimes seek to impose a tax on unrealised capital gains where companies migrate their tax residency or transfer assets offshore.

Prior to Budget 2019, Ireland had a limited exit tax regime that was subject to several exceptions. While it was expected that new exit tax rules would be introduced before 1 January 2020 to comply with the EU’s Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD), the implementation of new rules from 10 October 2018 was earlier than anticipated.

Old exit tax regime

Under the old exit tax regime, where a company changed its tax residence so that it was no longer within the scope of Irish tax, it was treated as disposing and reacquiring its assets at market value. This triggered a charge to tax at the rate of 33%, the standard capital gains tax rate.

The exit tax did not apply where the assets continued to be used in the State by a branch or agency of the migrating company or where the company was ultimately controlled by residents of a tax treaty country. The exit tax could also be avoided if the company transferring its residency was a 75% subsidiary of an Irish resident company and certain conditions were met for 10 years after the migration.

New exit tax regime

The new rules tax the unrealised gains of corporate entities where the following events occur:

  • A company transfers assets from its permanent establishment (PE) in Ireland to its head office or to a PE in another territory;
  • A company transfers the business (including the assets of the business) carried on by its PE in Ireland to another territory; or
  • An Irish resident company transfers its residence to another country.

The rate of tax applicable will generally be 12.5%. However, there is an anti-avoidance measure that applies a rate of 33% where the event triggering the tax forms part of a transaction to avail of the 12.5% rate rather than the standard capital gains tax of 33%.

Key points on the operation of the exit tax:

  • The exit tax will not apply to the transfer of assets that will revert to the PE or company within 12 months of the transfer, where the assets are:
    • Related to the financing of securities;
    • Given as security for a debt; or
    • Where the asset transfer takes place to meet prudential capital requirements or for liquidity management.
  • The tax may be paid in 6 annual instalments where the company migrates to an EU or EEA state.
  • Where a company ceases to be resident and an exit tax charge is imposed, the tax may be recovered from an Irish tax resident company within the group or from an Irish tax resident controlling director.

While the exit tax rate has been reduced, the new rules have significantly broader application than the old regime and transactions that previously would not have been subject to an exit tax may now trigger a tax charge.

For more information please contact Eddie Murphy, Partner and Head of Tax Services.

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Our Analysis of Budget 2019

Budget 2019 was delivered by Minister Donohoe, the country’s first balanced Budget in over 10 years. With the Irish economy and the national tax-take set to continue to grow impressively, and with a general election expected in the near-term, it was left to prudence and Brexit to influence the Minister’s Budget restraining measures. With Budget surpluses expected for the next few years, it was confirmed that these would be used to pay down that eye-watering national debt that we don’t really like to talk about.

The Minister kicked-off our rainy day fund with €500m from Corporation Tax we unexpectedly received as a one-off from a small number of multinational companies.  So who gained from this Budget? Everyone, of course!

Continuing the theme of the past few years, Budget 2019 gave a little to employees, social welfare recipients, home carers, back to school-ers, self-employers, educators, farmers, small business owners, social house seekers, rent takers, baby makers…….BUT….would it be better if instead of trying to appease all, the strategy was to target in an even more meaningful way, the homeless/housing issues that are affecting such a large number of people?

The giveaways were funded, in the main from re-instating the 13.5% VAT rate to the Tourism related businesses, small increases in VRT, betting tax and of course from the vast swathe of employees who have their payroll taxes withheld automatically.

Ireland’s annual family finances are in good order, stable and broader-based than in our recent past. Let’s see if the government (whichever one!) can manage to provide the basic services to all of its people and in a timely manner.

 

Edward Murphy
Partner and Head of Tax Services
edward.murphy@crowleysdk.ie

 

 

 

If you would like further information, please contact our Tax Team.

View the key highlights from Budget 2019

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Revenue Warns Airbnb Hosts over their Tax Compliance

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Revenue have recently written to over 12,000 taxpayers who are in receipt of income from the letting of short-term accommodation through Airbnb. Airbnb have provided Revenue with details of payments made to customers in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 in respect of the provision of short-term accommodation.

The letters issued by Revenue are reminders to taxpayers to include this income in their tax returns. Revenue have confirmed that they will be carrying out a range of follow up compliance checks to ensure that tax returns are filed on time and completed correctly.

Income received from the letting of short-term accommodation is treated differently for tax purposes to income received from renting a property under a landlord and tenant arrangement. In addition, income from a trade of short-term letting is subject to different tax treatment to income from the provision of accommodation on an occasional basis.

When preparing your income tax return, please be aware of the following points when calculating profits from the occasional letting of short-term accommodation:

  1. A deduction against profits may only be made in respect of incidental costs directly associated with the service provided to guests. Examples of incidental costs include commission paid to online accommodation booking sites, cleaning fees, the cost of providing breakfast to guests as well as a reasonable apportionment of electricity, gas and heating utilised by guests;
  2. A deduction against profits is not allowable for annual costs associated with a property such as insurance, TV licence and general maintenance costs;
  3. Capital allowances on the cost of furniture and fittings for the property are not available against the profits;
  4. No deduction is allowable against profits in respect of expenditure incurred in advance of a property/room being made available for guest accommodation.

For income earned in 2017, the required date to submit your income tax return on Revenue’s Online Service (ROS) is 14 November 2018.

If you have any queries or concerns relating to the letter issued by Revenue, please contact our Tax Department.

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Crowleys DFK wins DFK UK & Ireland’s Firm of the Year 2018

Crowleys DFK was awarded the DFK UK & Ireland Firm of the Year 2018 at the recent DFK UK & Ireland Annual Conference in Glasgow.

DFK International is a major international association of independent firms and business advisors that has been meeting the needs of clients with interests in more than one country for over 50 years.  The association has over 400 offices in over 90 countries. The firm has been a committed member of the association since 1992.

Crowleys DFK was recognised for its positive contribution to DFK UK & Ireland over the past year.

Managing Partner James O’Connor commented, “We are delighted that Crowleys DFK have been recognised by our colleagues for our commitment to servicing our clients’ needs internationally.”

Crowleys DFK is a seven partner firm with offices in Cork and Dublin and has grown significantly in recent years.

James stated, “Our international affiliation is a distinctive feature of the firm and provides our clients with an integrated and robust global delivery mechanism across the world.”

 

 

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Credit Union Director Duties

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Credit unions have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years with more attention than ever focused on the duties of directors and the board. At a time of rapid change both within the credit union sector, and in the wider economy, keeping up to date is critical, explains Fiona O’Sullivan, Director, Audit & Assurance.

A Central Bank report published earlier this year shows that governance and risk management continue to challenge credit unions. The board of each credit union is responsible for its control, direction and management and must ensure that directors have the skills and expertise to adequately oversee operations — this includes being aware of the rules and regulations governing who can serve on the board, in what capacity, and for how long. Individual directors must be able to devote sufficient time to their roles and responsibilities and must keep up to date with their legal and regulatory obligations.

Improving standards

While governance standards are generally improving, the Central Bank report shows that 60 percent of risks identified in credit unions relate to governance and operational issues. Typically, these include failure to challenge internal audit, failure to adequately monitor the quality of risk management and compliance, and failure to adequately review the performance of individual directors, management and key staff. These problems occur in credit unions of all sizes, not just in smaller entities.

The report provides a useful summary of supervisory expectations:

  • An effective and comprehensive governance framework should be evident in the credit union, including clear accountabilities and an appropriate performance management framework for relevant officers and staff.
  • Effective engagement with internal audit, risk management and compliance functions should be evident. Boards should have an awareness, challenge and undertake action in relation to findings and issues identified by these functions.
  • Clear separation between the roles of the board (non-executive) and management (executive). This separation should be underpinned by clear roles, responsibilities, reporting lines and accountabilities.
  • A strategic, forward-looking focus at board level, with quality discussion and challenge of strategic plans and associated targets evident at board meetings. The ongoing monitoring and tracking of metrics to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the strategic plan is key to effective governance and driving the future direction of the credit union.
  • Appropriate and timely reporting to the board in order to support decision-making on key strategic issues. Such reports should be well understood at board level and there should be evidence of discussion, challenge and follow-up from the board in relation to such reports.

Risk governance

The report highlights the importance of internal audit, risk management and compliance, stating:

“Those credit unions demonstrating stronger governance have typically moved beyond a mere ‘tick-box’ compliance attitude to exhibiting a more integrated risk governance culture, with a strong awareness and understanding of the impact of unmanaged risk. Such credit unions are more likely to leverage appropriately the important supports to the board provided for in the 2012 enhanced governance framework of internal audit, risk management and compliance in order to provide them with an improved understanding of the risk profile of their credit unions so that they can drive the necessary changes and improvements.”

Directors should keep in mind that, as in other sectors, the risks that credit unions face continue to evolve as circumstances change.  Risk registers and policies must be regularly reviewed and updated to take account of regulatory, sectoral, economic and technology-related developments. Recent regulatory developments include the changes to the investment and liquidity framework being implemented in 2018. Emerging economic risks include Brexit while cyber risks include vulnerabilities in areas such as fintech, cloud computing, mobile technologies, the Internet of Things and ‘big data’. Directors are responsible for ensuring that these, and other existing and emerging risks are identified and documented and that appropriate plans are devised and implemented to mitigate them.

How we can help

Understandably, with the regulatory and compliance burden increasing and new and complex challenges emerging, credit unions and their directors need help to keep pace with developments. Crowleys DFK has more than 25 years’ experience advising clients in this sector and offers a broad range of specialist services, including governance support, to assist boards and directors to meet their legal and regulatory obligations.

For more information and to find out how we can help, please get in touch.

Talk to us

 

Fiona O’Sullivan
Director, Audit & Assurance Services
fiona.osullivan@crowleysdfk.ie

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Crowleys DFK Partner meets Minister Bruton

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Crowleys DFK Partner and Chairman of the Ireland Malaysia Business Association, Vincent Teo, had the pleasure of meeting Minister Richard Bruton, Minister for Education and Skills, and Ambassador Eamon Hickey, Irish Ambassador to Malaysia, at Enterprise Ireland’s business breakfast in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 20th September.

Minister Bruton addressed the local network of business and education leaders for Enterprise Ireland’s business breakfast as part of his five day education and trade mission to Malaysia and Indonesia.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to greet an Irish Minister in my home country,” Vincent commented, “Congratulations to Ambassador Hickey and Enterprise Ireland on hosting a successful business breakfast.”

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Crowleys DFK Partner meets the Irish Ambassador to Malaysia

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Crowleys DFK Partner and Chairman of the Ireland Malaysia Business Association, Vincent Teo, met with Ambassador Eamon Hickey, Irish Ambassador to Malaysia at the Embassy of Ireland in Kuala Lampur last week.

Vincent commented, “I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to meet Ambassador Eamon Hickey in the Embassy and for his continued support to our efforts in promoting bilateral trade relations between Ireland and Malaysia.”

“We plan to reach out to the relevant Ministries in Malaysia in the hope of hosting a ministerial visit to Ireland in the near future,” stated Vincent.

The objective of the Irish Malaysia Association is to support bilateral business links between Ireland and Malaysia. Crowleys DFK is a patron member of the IMA and is dedicated to supporting its development.

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Crowleys DFK Accounting Technician Trainee Showcased in Cork’s Evening Echo

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Jacky Lorimer, Accounting Technician Trainee in the firm’s Outsourcing Department, is showcased in the August 14th edition of Cork’s Evening Echo.

Working 4 days a week in Crowleys DFK and studying 1 day a week in Cork College of Commerce, Jacky has been able to get started on her dream career as a result of Accounting Technicians Ireland’s “Earn as you Learn” scheme.

Read or download a pdf version of the article here.

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Amendments to Dwelling House Exemption

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There were two amendments made to the Capital Acquisitions Tax Dwelling House Exemption by Finance Act 2017, in such cases where the recipient of the dwelling house is a dependent relative of the disponer.

A ‘dependent relative’ is defined as a relative who is permanently and totally incapacitated due to mental or physical infirmity from maintaining himself or herself, or who is of the age of 65 years or over at the date of gift or inheritance.

The position following the amendments is as follows:

  1. In the case of a gift or an inheritance of a dwelling house taken by a dependent relative, the dwelling house is not required to have been the only or main residence of the disponer.
  2. A gift of a dwelling house that becomes an inheritance as a result of the disponer dying within two years of making the gift can qualify for the dwelling house exemption, where the beneficiary is a dependent relative.

All other provisions to the exemption remain unchanged.

The amendments to the Dwelling House Exemption take effect from the date of passing of the Finance Act 2017, 25 December 2017.

Should you require any further details on the above, please contact a member of our Tax Department.

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Revenue Publishes Updated Transfer of Business Document

On 31st July 2018, Revenue published an updated Transfer of Business document, revising the previous document which was reviewed in December 2017.

There are significant differences between the two versions when it comes to which transfers of property come within the transfer of business (TOB) provisions.

 

The December 2017 document confirmed Revenue’s view that TOB applied:

  • where a property had been let on a continuing basis and was being sold to a tenant who is an accountable person; and
  • in the case of a vacant property that was let or partially let on a continuing basis in the past.

Whereas, the 31st July 2018 version confirms that TOB will not apply to:

  • “The transfer of a let property to the tenant…as the only asset being transferred in those circumstances is the property itself and the transfer of a property without any additional assets, which together with the property would constitute an independent undertaking…regardless of how the property had been used prior to its transfer”; and
  • “A transfer of [property], of itself, without any additional assets (such as a letting agreement), which together with the immovable good, would constitute an independent undertaking…regardless of how the [property] had been used prior to its transfer”.

Vendors, their solicitors and tax advisors should review all property transactions currently in progress to ensure the correct VAT treatment is being applied in light of this updated Revenue guidance.

For further assistance please get in touch.

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