The Law Society has introduced new Solicitors Accounts Regulations 2023, which come into operation on 1 July 2023.
These regulations will impact solicitors, reporting accountants and Law Society investigations.
The existing Solicitors Accounts Regulations 2014 remain applicable for any accounting period that commenced before 1 July 2023.
Please visit the Law Society for information on the key updates.
We are delighted to be recognised in the Top 100 Companies Leading in Wellbeing Index, for the third year in a row.
This index, published by Business & Finance in partnership with Ibec, recognises top businesses of all sizes who lead the way and have improved their performance in supporting employee mental health and wellbeing.
This follows our recent reaccreditation of the prestigious Ibec KeepWell MarkTM; an evidence-based accreditation and award that recognises Irish employers for investing in workplace health and wellbeing.
Speaking about this achievement, Paula McCann, Health & Wellbeing Lead said:
“The health and wellbeing of our employees is a core priority for us. We are striving towards a true culture of wellbeing and the inclusion of Crowleys DFK in this index for the third year in a row is a great acknowledgement of the progress we have made.”
Ian Hyland, Publisher, Business & Finance, commented:
“We are honoured to be working with our partners Ibec to recognise the companies that place employee wellbeing at the top of their priority list. It is imperative for businesses that the wellness of the entire team plays a core part of their business strategy to cultivate a healthy and rewarding working environment which is crucial for business and employee development.”
Danny McCoy, CEO, Ibec commented:
“It’s important to recognise the efforts being made by businesses in supporting the wellbeing of their people. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria is now driving how investors evaluate companies. Mental health and overall wellbeing of employees is increasingly forming part of the measurable foundation of the ‘S’ within ESG.”
If you are interested in working in one of Ireland’s Top 100 Companies Leading in Wellbeing, take a look at our career options.
Revenue’s Debt Warehousing Scheme allowed businesses who experienced trading difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic to warehouse their tax debt interest-free. The scheme enabled a business to defer paying certain tax liabilities until it was in a better financial position.
The interest free period for any tax debts that have been warehoused will end on this Sunday 30th of April 2023. From this date, Revenue will charge interest at a rate of 3% until all tax liabilities are paid off.
Revenue have given businesses who availed of this Scheme until 1 May 2024 to enter into a formal payment plan with them.
If you would like our assistance with agreeing a payment plan with Revenue, please contact us.
From 23 April 2023, all Company Directors of Irish companies have a statutory filing obligation to disclose their Personal Public Service (PPS) Number to the Companies Registration Office (CRO).
PPS Numbers are to be disclosed when filing the following forms:
Your PPS Number is a unique reference number that helps you access social welfare benefits, public services and information in Ireland.
A PPS Number is always 7 numbers followed by either one or 2 letters. It is sometimes called a PPSN.
You have a PPS Number if:
Note: The CRO plan to redact the PPS Number from all forms, by placing hashes over the numbers and letter(s). No publicly accessible form or document will display your PPS number.
If a director does not have a PPS number but has been issued with an RBO number by the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership, then the director can use their RBO number as their Verified Identity Number (VIN) for CRO filings.
If a director does not have a PPS Number or an RBO Number, they must apply to the CRO for a VIN which will be issued by the CRO.
This new requirement is being introduced to help with the identification of directors and to prevent fraud.
A director that fails to comply with the regulations commits an offence under Section 35 “888A (2)” of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021 and shall be guilty of a category four offence.
We strongly advise all clients who have not already provided us with their PPS number, RBO number or obtained a new VIN to do so, as a matter of urgency, to avoid any material discrepancies and delays with the next in-scope filings due at the CRO.
Directors should further ensure that the information held at the DEASP with the PPS number is consistent with the information held at the CRO.
Please email our Corporate Compliance Team if you require any assistance.
A new Vacant Homes Tax (VHT) was introduced in Budget 2023. The primary objective of this is to increase the availability of housing, but landlords need to be aware of the restrictions on allowable pre-letting expenses when calculating their rental profits.
VHT applies to residential properties which have been occupied for less than 30 days in a chargeable period.
VHT is calculated at three times the residential property’s local property tax (LPT) liability.
The following will be exempt from the VHT:
The first chargeable period runs from 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023.
A VHT return will be due by 7 November 2023, with the tax payable by 1 January 2024.
In determining the taxable rental profits from the letting of residential property, a landlord may claim a deduction for the following expenses:
However, with the exception of property-related fees such as letting or legal fees incurred on the first letting, a deduction is not permitted for expenses incurred prior to the first letting of the property.
The Finance Act 2017 sought to address the above and introduced an allowable deduction of up to €5,000 for certain pre-letting expenses incurred on vacant residential properties. From 1 January 2023, this cap on the authorised deduction has been increased to €10,000 and the specified period for which the property was vacant has been reduced from twelve to six months. The landlord must incur the expenditure during the twelve months prior to first letting the property.
If the landlord ceases to let the property within four years, the deduction for the pre-letting expenses will be clawed back in the year in which the property ceases to be let as a residential property. Importantly, a clawback will be triggered if there is a change of use from residential or if the property is sold.
If you need any assistance with VHT or Pre-Letting Expenses, please contact Niall Grant, Partner in our Tax Services’ Department.
In recent months, there has been a wave of artificial intelligences (AI), known as Chatbots, made available to the general public. With more than one hundred million users having already engaged with these Chatbots, there has been much speculation regarding the implications of AI. Furthermore, as attention on AIs has increased, it has come to light that some industries have already incorporated these into their working processes. Much has been said about the almost limitless possibilities of AI, but from our own research, it is not likely that AI will supplant whole industries. What we expect is that AI is going to be an assistant, rather than a replacement, for workers.
To understand why this is, we have to understand how these AIs function. AI Chatbots are not self-aware in the manner we may be familiar with from science-fiction. These AIs operate by learning and then reproducing patterns, whether these are patterns of speech, presentation, computer code, and so on. They are exposed to huge amounts of data and learn to understand what a plausible-seeming answer to any given question might be. As a basic example, an AI does not understand what is meant by asking “how are you”, but it does know what sort of answers that question should be met with.
Even if AIs function through reproducing rather than creating, this does not prevent them from having impressive capabilities. For instance an AI, if the user feeds the correct data into it, can be used to draft legal documents or website content. Some newspapers have already experimented with using AIs to draft shorter online pieces, crediting these to the AI in the by-line. AIs can also be used to review data. A user can enter information into the question box along with a set of instructions for the AI to follow in sorting through the data. While there will probably need to be a few attempts to finetune the questions, in this way some forms of data analysis can be conducted in minutes. AIs can also be used as research tools. There have been several successful attempts at using an AI to produce research abstracts that are acceptable to peer review, while AIs can also be used to provide research bibliographies.
It is in this reliance on pattern recognition where we begin to see the limitations that will prevent AIs from replacing work. For instance, as the AI only produces answers that fit the pattern of a correct answer, it may provide answers that are false. Our investigations into AI have found that, when asked to provide a list of texts for review, several of the texts and authors provided did not exist. Furthermore, where the AI was not challenged on this error, it would provide more information on these fictitious authors, inventing careers and reputations only because this seemed like the sort of answer the question required. The AIs, then, are entirely capable of error.
It is because these AIs can err that they cannot be expected to replace human working in the immediate future. The use AI will have will be as a tool for accelerating productivity. For instance, time-consuming study of documents to find errors or anomalies could now be conducted at a relatively brisk pace, with human input being necessary for review. In this way, time can be freed up for workers to perform more complex tasks that are beyond an AI’s scope. Similarly, an AI could be used to generate generic content for online marketing, with human input again coming through reviewing and refining the output. AIs, then, cannot be expected to operate independently. They will have to function as an aide and assistant for our own work.
Vincent Teo |
Dr. Conor Dowling |
Paula McCann, Assistant Manager in our HR Department, featured in The Irish Times today discussing our mental health programme.
Crowleys DFK is pleased to announce the appointment of Donna Gould as a Partner in its Accounting & Financial Advisory Department along with the promotion of a further 13 employees to new positions across the firm. This exciting news comes as a recognition of the employees’ hard work, dedication, and outstanding performance.
The following individuals have been promoted to their new roles:
Managing Partner, James O’Connor, shared,
“We are extremely proud to announce these promotions and recognise the talent, hard work, and dedication of our employees. All have made significant contributions to the continued success of Crowleys DFK and have demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities and a commitment to excellence. They will provide a great boost to our management and leadership teams and Donna is a fantastic addition to our Partner group.”
Today’s announcement is a testament to the firms’ dedication to employee growth and development and helping its employees reach their full potential.
James concluded,
“We are confident that these promotions will drive the continued growth and success of our company and we would like to congratulate everyone on these important career milestones.”
If you are interested in developing your career with Crowleys DFK, please visit our Careers page.
Where an employee is provided with a company car by their employer, a value, called the cash equivalent, is put on the benefit, and the employee is taxed on it via payroll.
Many employees got an unwelcome shock when they received their first payslip of 2023, as the tax on their company vehicles had increased significantly.
As part of measures to assist families dealing with the cost of living challenges, the Government yesterday announced a temporary relief on how the benefit of having a company car is calculated. This relief is included in Finance Bill 2023, which will be published in the coming days.
This change will see some welcome, albeit temporary, reductions in the tax employees pay on their company cars.
A: You need to know the original market value of the car i.e. the list price of the car on the date of first registration. This applies even if your employer bought the car second-hand or is leasing it. If your car is in vehicle CO2 categories A – D, you can now reduce this value by €10,000, thanks to the Finance Bill 2023 changes.
You also need to know the annual business mileage you drive and from 2023 onwards, you need to know the vehicle’s CO2 emissions. These determine the cash equivalent percentage for your car.
The annual Cash Equivalent of your car = Original Market value – €10,000 (if your car is in categories A – D) x Cash Equivalent Percentage.
A: Business mileage means the total number of kilometres you are necessarily obliged to travel in the vehicle in the performance of your employment duties. Travel to and from work is generally regarded as private travel rather than business travel.
| Vehicle Category | CO2 Emissions (CO2 g/km) |
| A | 0g/km up to and including 59g/km |
| B | More than 59g/km up to and including 99g/km |
| C | More than 99g/km up to and including 139g/km |
| D | More than 139g/km up to and including 179g/km |
| E | More than 179g/km |
A: The cash equivalent percentage depends on your Vehicle C02 Category and the amount of Business mileage you have during the year. This table has also been updated by Finance Bill 2023 to reduce the upper limit in the highest mileage band to 48,001 (previously 52,001):
| Lower Limit | Upper Limit | A | B | C | D | E |
| Km | Km | % | % | % | % | % |
| — | 26,000 | 22.50 | 26.25 | 30 | 33.75 | 37.5 |
| 26,001 | 39,000 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 30 |
| 39,001 | 48,000 | 13.50 | 15.75 | 18 | 20.25 | 22.50 |
| 48,001 | — | 9 | 10.50 | 12 | 13.5 | 15 |
A: Previously, the benefit of having a company car was calculated by taking the annual cash equivalent of the company car at 30% of its original market value. Where business mileage exceeded 24,000km, the cash equivalent was reduced by a percentage which ranged from 6% to 24% based on the number of business kilometres travelled.
From 2023 onwards, the cash equivalent of a company car depends on both the business mileage and the vehicle’s CO2 emissions.
Example:
Pre 2023:
An employee drives a Category B car (CO2 Emissions More than 59g/km up to and including 99g/km) with an original market value of €35,000. The employee drove 45,000 business km in the year. The annual benefit on which the employee was taxed was €4,200 (€35,000 x 12%).
If paid monthly, this was additional taxable income of €350 per month (€4,200 / 12 months), on which the employee was taxed.
2023 Onwards:
In 2023 the benefit of having the same car and doing the same mileage is €3,938 (€35,000- €10,000 x 15.75%).
If paid monthly, this is now additional taxable income of €328 per month (€3,938 / 12 months), on which the employee is taxed.
A: If you travel less than 26,000 business km in a year, the cash equivalent of your car may be reduced by 20% if you satisfy all the following conditions:
Example:
Your company car has an original market value of €35,000 and a CO2 emissions of 95g/km. All running costs are paid by your employer. You work full time and travel 15,000 km per year for work related purposes. You spend more than 70% of working time away from your employers premises and keep a log book.
With Relief Without Relief
(€35,000 – €10,000) x 26.25% €6,563 (€35,000 – €10,000) x 26.25% = €6,563
Less reduction of 20% (€1,313)
Annual Benefit €5,250
A: From 1st of January 2023, the percentage to calculate the cash equivalent a company van has increased from 5% to 8%. You can reduce the original market value of your van by €10,000 thanks to the Finance Bill 2023 changes. The business mileage driven or the CO2 emissions are not relevant for vans.
Example:
Van with an original market value of €35,000.
Pre 2023: The annual cash equivalent on which you were taxed = €35,000 x 5% = €1,750 (€146 per month if paid monthly)
2023 onwards: The annual cash equivalent on which you are taxed = €35,000 – €10,000 x 8% = €2,000 (€167 per month if paid monthly)
A: In 2023 fully electric cars also benefit from the Finance Bill 2023 temporary changes. Now cars with an original market value of €45,000 or less are not taxed. If your fully electric car has an original market value of greater than €45,000, you will be taxed based on the excess value as shown in the example below:
An employee drives a Category A fully electric car (CO2 Emissions of 0g/km up to and including 59g/km) with an original market value of €80,000. The employee drives 40,000 business km in the year.
Taxable original market value = €80,000 – €45,000 = €35,000
Annual Cash Equivalent of use of Electric car = €35,000 x 13.5% = €4,725.
A: Yes, these changes will be back dated to the 1st of January 2023.
If you have any further questions about these new BIK rules, please contact us.
Budget 2023 saw the introduction of a new Rent Tax Credit which is available from 2022 to 2025.
The credit is 20% of the rent paid in a year, up to a maximum credit of either €500 for an individual or €1,000 for a couple, for:
Qualifying rents are any amounts paid in return for the use, enjoyment and special possession of the property but does not include payments made for security deposits, repairs or maintenance or any other services such as board, laundry, etc.
The main conditions of the relief are as follows:
You can claim the Rent Tax Credit for rent paid during 2022 by submitting a 2022 Income Tax Return to Revenue. For 2023 and subsequent years the claim can also be made in-year using Revenue’s Real-Time Credit Facility.
If you are not registered for self-assessment, you can submit your Income Tax Return via Revenues’ MyAccount. By selecting “Review your Tax 2022” and requesting a “Statement of Liability”, you can input the information under the “Tax Credits & Reliefs” page.
The Real Time Credit Facility for 2023 and subsequent years enables you to claim the Rent tax credits in during the year. To claim the credit you must select “Manage your Tax 2023” and “Add new credits”, there it will give you the option to add the “Rent tax credit” and input the relevant information. Once the claim has been processed by Revenue, an amended Tax Credit Certificate is issued, and an amended Revenue Payroll Notification will be made to your employer.
For further information about the Rent Tax Credit, please contact us.