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

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 65, line 24, to delete “one or more” and substitute “all”.

Amendments Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, and amendments Nos. 11 to 16, inclusive, are technical changes to improve the wording of the provision in section 34 of the Bill, as amended on Committee Stage, to ensure they operate as intended. One of the amendments I introduced on Committee Stage was to change the requirement for an individual entrepreneur to own for the purposes of the capital gains tax entrepreneur relief a specified minimum of ordinary share capital in the company or companies to which he or she is conducting qualifying business so as to reduce the shareholding requirement from 15% to 5%. I did this because the founders of many companies, in particular those in the high-tech area, must attract outside equity investment in order to grow a business. This means their original shareholding stake can often be significantly diluted. Indeed, in some instances the shareholding of the company founder can fall below 5% in the circumstances. For that reason, I propose in amendment No. 10 to further modify the minimum shareholding requirement so as to provide that the 5% shareholding requirement can be satisfied if met for a consecutive period of three years within the five year period, ending with the disposal of the shareholding effort. I commend the amendments to the House.

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