Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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162. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason the Revenue Commissioners did not issue RICT certificates under the employment and investment incentive, EII, scheme to investors in time for the annual tax return; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46524/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Employment and Investment Incentive (“EII”) is an incentive whereby investors can claim relief for investments in qualifying companies.

EII is a State Aid. It was a notified aid up to October 2015, after which it came within the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER). A number of changes to EII were necessary to ensure that it is consistent with GBER.

Revenue advises me that the changes to EII mean that there is increased degree of complexity in determining whether or, not a company qualifies for relief and that this in turn means that each application takes longer to review. Applications received by Revenue are not always complete, with necessary documentation often not provided. In this instance, further information must be sought before a decision can be made. Of the cases currently being worked by Revenue's EII Branch, 82% have required follow up correspondence. While some of those are requests for clarifications, the majority relate to incomplete applications.

I understand that the EII branch has prioritised the review of all EII 1 Applications received with a view to finalising as many cases as possible before the Return Filing Deadline and that every effort will be made by the it to ensure that as many cases as possible are processed before the Return Filing Deadline.

Revenue also point out that an EII Application can be made once the investment has taken place.

Finally, the Deputy may wish to note that, in Finance Bill 2018, in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of EII, including addressing the issue of administrative hold-ups, I have moved to change the administration of EII to a self-certification model. Under this model, a company will be able to self-certify that it complies with the conditions of the relief applicable to the company, while investors will self-certify that they meet the conditions of the relief applicable to the investors.