Newsletter – March 2024
Welcome to our March edition
Packed full of good news following on from Ireland’s great success in the 6 nations.
To keep you in good spirits, we are offering a lucky reader the chance to win a pair of South Premium stand tickets to Leinster’s upcoming game against Leicester Tigers in the Aviva on Saturday 6th April next… see inside for details.
If you are a 66 year old client who pays commercial rates of €10,000 there’s more good news for you – a €5,000 bonus now, and the opportunity to still sell your business for €750,000 tax free before you are 70! It’s shaping up to be a good year for you. Read on…
The Increased Cost of Business (ICOB) Grant 2024
Last years budget announced a grant or refund of rates. Today the first of our clients
(and I myself) received the letter confirming how it was going to be paid.
The eligibility criteria are as follows:
- Your business must be a commercially trading business currently operating from a property that is paying rates.
- Your business must have been trading on 1st February 2024 and you must intend to continue trading for at least 3 months from the date you submit your information.
- Your rates must be up to date.
- Your business must be tax compliant and must possess a valid Tax Registration Number.
How much will you get?
- If you paid <€10,000 in 2023 you will receive 50%.
- If you paid between €10,000 – €30,000 you will receive €5,000.
- If you paid more than €30,000 no grant is available.
Having applied myself today, it took me less than 20 minutes to complete the application. My tip is to have a scan of the headed of a recent bank statement handy, plus your tax registration number, that’s it.
Retirement relief upper age limit extended to 70
If a person incurs a capital gain on retirement (typically from selling their shares in their business) they may avail of relief up to €750,000 and pay no Capital Gains Tax. Now with effect from 1st January 2025, the upper age limit is extended to 70 from its previous age of 66. This is reflective of many people opting to, or in some cases having to, work on beyond the “normal” retirement age of 65.
This will enable a number of our clients, who had reached 66, but needed to continue to work to bolster their pension for example, to now avail of this and potentially save up to €247,500.
If you are considering selling your business either to a third party or a family member please do contact us to discuss how we may assist you in this.
Further update on claiming relief on Nursing Home fees
Several of our clients have been contacted recently and asked to provide documentation to support their claim of having paid nursing home fees for their parents. We have experienced Revenue looking in minute detail at the sequence of bank transactions and the source of the funds use to pay the nursing home fees.
If you are currently paying nursing home fees for a parent or spouse, or expect to in 2024, please contact us immediately and we can share some advice with you to insure you don’t fall foul of the rules. It can be very expensive if you do not adhere to the guidelines.
Tax relief @ 40% now available on investments up to €500,000
The threshold for investments in The Employment Investment Incentive Scheme (EIIS) is now increased from €250,000 to €500,000. This is good news for those of our clients who invest in such companies, but also for our clients who are seeking to expand and raise money under the EIIS scheme. If you are interested in either of these options, please contact us and we will explore the opportunity further.
Revenue return to imposing interest on late payments of VAT and PAYE
Prior to Covid, it was rare that Revenue imposed interest on late payments of many business taxes. Certainly if the tax was paid by the end of the month in which it was due, or even a few weeks into the next month, interest was not commonly charged. Some clients who were repeatedly late in paying were issued a letter stating that interest would be charged in future, but this was in approximately 10% of the cases.
Since the start of the year, without warning, a number of client shave received interest demands calculating interest on a daily rate at 8% – 10% interest, depending on the type of tax. We have appealed these charges but to no avail, we are being quoted the tax act. We recommend you go on to variable direct debit for your PAYE to avoid this. In relation to VAT, we must insist on receiving your data for processing, no later than the 7th working day of each month in order to allow us time to prepare your return and file it on time.
Need some working capital or funds for capital investment?
A new low-cost finance scheme, The Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme (USGS) has been launched by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE). It’s designed to assist viable SME’s impacted by economic challenges to access low cost finance.
Don’t be fooled by the name – we have already drawn down funds for companies whom you’d find it hard to understand how they have been directly affected by the conflict – the banks are very positive to release these funds.
Borrowers must self-declare:
- Their costs have increased by a minimum of 10% on their 2020 cost figures due to the impact of the conflict.
- Finance is being sought specifically as a result of difficulties being experienced due to the conflict in Ukraine.
- Finance is being sought for a new loan. Refinancing of existing loans is not permitted..
Loans are available from €10,000 to a maximum of €1,000,000 per borrower:
- Subject to loan criteria.
- Terms 3 months to 6 years.
- May be used for working capital, asset finance, etc.
- Loans <€250,000 will be unsecured.
- Amounts >€250,000 may require security.
- The scheme is available up to 31st December 2024, or when funds are fully subscribed.
Competition Corner
To win the 2 tickets all you have to do is to suggest who is my favorite Leinster player of all time (and its not Brian O’Driscoll). Mail your answer to hr@guardianma.ie