Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 27:

In page 62, line 14, to delete “in an accounting period” and substitute “in respect of an accounting period”.

These are Government amendments. Following publication of the Finance Bill, it was identified that a number a technical amendments are necessary to ensure changes to the research and development tax credit regime operate as intended. Some additional provisions are also being introduced to provide for increased reporting in respect of claims so Revenue can more accurately target compliance activities.

I will outline the key amendments that are being made. There are technical amendments to ensure the provisions apply to the accounting period in which the claim is made and not the claim the date is made on. There is an amendment to provide the new credit provisions will apply on specified return dates on or after 23 September 2023, which is a standard return date for corporation tax purposes. There are amendments to ensure, where a payroll limit is applied on a prior claim, a company will be able to seek payment under the new system of the second and third instalments that are being carried forward. There is an amendment to ensure an offset of the first instalment of the research and development tax credit may be taken into account for the calculation of preliminary corporation tax and a new requirement for claimant companies to identify separately the amount of qualifying research and development expenditure incurred in relation to machinery and plant, employee remuneration and other expenditure. Then there are some technical amendments throughout to update the numerical referencing as a consequence of the addition of new subsections of legislation.

On the Government amendments to section 24, the section provides for a consequential technical amendment to the key employee provisions for the research and development tax credit following the introduction of the new provisions contained in section 23. Amendments Nos. 43 and 44 are further technical amendments required to correct cross-references in legislation.