Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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307. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of investments applied for and approved by the Revenue Commissioners since the beginning of 2015 in the employment investment incentive, the seed capital scheme and the start-up relief for entrepreneurs investment incentive schemes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34667/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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By way of background, a review of the Employment Investment Incentive (‘EII’) scheme and Start-Up Relief for Entrepreneurs (‘SURE’) was carried out and changes to the administration of the scheme were implemented in Finance Act 2018. SURE, was previously known as the Seed Capital Scheme (‘SCS’). From 1 January 2019 qualifying companies can submit applications for eligible EII/SURE investments on a self-assessment basis. This means that a company that wishes to claim EII/SURE no longer needs advance approval from Revenue. A company can satisfy itself that it qualifies for EII/SURE and, accordingly, obtain certification on a self-assessment basis via the Revenue Online Service (‘ROS’).

For all investments both prior to the changes in Finance Act 2018 and after, a company cannot apply or make a claim for relief until 30% of the amount raised has been spent on a qualifying purpose. A company has two years from the end of the year in which the share issue took place to spend this amount.

For investments made on or before 31 December 2018 Revenue certification is still required. As a company has two years from the end of the year in which the share issue took place to apply for certification, Revenue will continue to receive applications for 2018 share issues until 31 December 2020.

Relief for EII investments on or before 8 October 2019 is granted in two tranches. The first portion of the relief (30/40) is given at the time of investment, while the second portion (10/40) is given if, after 3 years, the company has increased employment or spent all of the money on qualifying research and development. In addition, for investments made on or before 31 December 2018, Revenue certification is still required for the second portion when the relevant period has ended. As such Revenue may still receive applications for share issues taking place on or before 31 December 2018 until 31 December 2023.

A company can make an application each time it issues shares as a result of a qualifying investment. This may mean that a company could have multiple applications in a year. Revenue will record each application by reference to the share issue date. The numbers set out below relate to the number of applications, being each separate share issue, rather than each separate company. Each application, by reference to each share issue, is treated as a separate application and may or may not receive certification based on its own merits.

The following are details of applications approved in the years 2015 to 2018:

For claims for relief for share issues in 2019 and 2020, it is the responsibility of the company which has received the investment to submit a return under self-assessment. The information Revenue currently has for relief claimed for EII and SURE is as follows:

In providing information in relation to EII and SURE, Revenue publishes guidance on how applications can be made. It is not Revenue practice to provide details of unsuccessful applications, which may be unsuccessful for a wide variety of case-specific reasons.

For investments made on or before 31 December 2018, Revenue records applications in the year in which they are received. As previously noted, applications for relief can be made by a company over a number of years. Therefore, the number of applications received in a year is not reflective of share issues that actually took place in that year, e.g. a company has a February 2018 share issue but the required 30% is only spent by May 2020. It is only from May 2020 onwards that the company can submit the application for certification.

Revenue changed how cases were recorded in September 2018. The information Revenue can provide relates to applications on hand at September 2018 and received since that date.

The number of applications, as set out below, are for investments made on or before 31 December 2018.

By way of example, of the 354 applications received in 2019, this includes EII first tranche applications, second tranche applications and SURE applications.

As previously noted, companies have until the end of 2020 to apply for the first tranche of relief for investments made on or before 31 December 2018 and until the end of 2023 to apply for the second tranche of relief and, as such, this number is not final.