Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 14:

In page 20, to delete line 28 and substitute the following:“payment.(c) (i) Notwithstanding subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) the amount of €200,000 referred to in that subparagraph shall be reduced by an amount equal to the aggregate amount of all payments, exempted from income tax by virtue of that subparagraph, which were paid before or at the same time as the making of the payment to which that subparagraph refers.
(ii) Where two or more payments to which subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) applies are made to or in respect of the same person in respect of the same office or employment, or in respect of different offices or employments, for the purposes of that subparagraph this subparagraph shall apply as if those payments were a single payment of the aggregate amount of all such payments, and the provisions of subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) shall apply to that single payment accordingly.”,”.

This amendment clarifies the limit of €200,000 introduced by section 13 of the Bill, which applies to an ex gratia payment made by an employer on account of the death of an employee or officeholder or on account of the disability of an employee or officeholder. It is a maximum lifetime limit and ring-fenced to such payments. Any previous payments which were made under the same provision of section 201(2) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 to the same person by the same or different employers are to be aggregated into a single sum for the purposes of applying this limit. In bringing forward this amendment, it is important to point out that while there is now a maximum lifetime limit on the application of this particular exemption, this does not in any way have a negative impact on the same employee's entitlement to a further ex gratia payment or a later redundancy or cessation of employment payment where a separate lifetime limit of €200,000, as set out in section (208)(8), applies.