In April this year, the Institute’s NI Tax Committee wrote to the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury to raise its concerns about the disproportionate impact of the proposals to curtail the benefit of agricultural property relief and business property relief from April 2026, particularly in Northern Ireland, on genuine farming activity and family owned businesses. The Committee urged the Government to postpone the changes in order to consult wider and reframe this policy change in a way that it is more effectively targeted. Last week HM Treasury responded to the letter which you can read in full on our website. Unfortunately, the content of the letter suggests that the policy will be proceeding as planned, and there is no suggestion that there will be any mitigations to the draft policy as it currently stands. It is therefore possible that later today, draft Finance Bill clauses for this policy change will be published as part of ‘L-day’. The Institute is therefore considering what further action needs to be take on this important issue. In April, the NI Tax Committee also responded to the related technical consultation which took place earlier in the year.

MEPs have adopted suggestions for reforms to the tax architecture to boost competitiveness while continuing to address tax avoidance and evasion. In addition, MEPs called for measures to deal with the tax issues facing trans-frontier workers and digital nomads, as well simplifying the R&D tax incentive schemes.

The Department of Finance has published its annual report on tax expenditures in Ireland. Tax expenditures include tax reliefs, credits, deductions and deferrals which reduce the quantum of tax paid, and the purpose of the report is to facilitate a better understanding of these expenditures in Ireland and their role within the Irish taxation system. Last year revenue forgone from all tax expenditures amounted to €8 billion, with the largest single cost, at just under €1.4 billion, arising from tax relief associated with the Research and Development tax credit.

Revenue has clarified that when a taxpayer is aware that its agent is trying to link and the agent has sent the elinking request, the taxpayer can navigate directly to the “mange agent link requests” on either ROS or myAccount to accept the linking request. The notification email or ROS inbox item is only to inform the taxpayer that they have a link request to action and is an additional support for the taxpayer on the timing of a link request. 

The European Commission is assessing the potential tofurther simplify and update the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), in line with the EU's Competitiveness Compass and the Clean Industrial Deal. In seeking input on the scope and content of its review of GBER it has launched a Call for Evidence and public consultation which will remain open until 6 October 2025.

Revenue is aware that an issue has arisen whereby a recent a fix to the Form 11 has inadvertently cleared certain RPF Form 11s which were in progress or have been issued to clients for approval. This has resulted in a requirement for the forms to be completed again from the beginning. Revenue has informed us that its technical team is working to reinstate the lost details on the affected Form 11s.

The Council has formally adopted new VAT rules for distance sales of imported goods. The new rules, agreed earlier this year, will make suppliers liable for import VAT and VAT on certain distance sales. Foreign traders or platforms using the VAT Import One-stop Shop will not need to be registered in each Member State.

The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council has published its annual report for Government on the key competitiveness and productivity challenges facing the Irish economy. The report contains specific policy actions to address the challenges identified. The report highlights the recently implemented Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR) for employers as a contributing factor to rising labour-related costs, driven by the requirement for employers to comply with additional reporting obligations mandated by ERR. The Council has recommended that a review is undertaken of the proportionality of the current ERR rules with consideration to be given to amendments for SMEs below a certain threshold (i.e., below 20 staff and/or below €1m in annual turnover) to lower the relative administrative burden.  Welcoming the report, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke TD, said: "I welcome the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council’s analysis and recommendations, as set out in Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2025. I also welcome the various positive findings by the Council about Ireland’s competitiveness performance – including an overall ranking of 7th in the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings – and concur with the Council’s assessment that we must not take our strong position for granted, given the highly competitive and uncertain global context in which we find ourselves. It is important for Ireland to retain its core strengths while addressing weaknesses. This work by the Council is highly valuable to Government. This year’s Challenge report has been an important input into the development of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity which was discussed at the second annual Competitiveness Summit this week. The government will take the recommendations from the Council into consideration and will issue a formal reply in due course."

Last week, the Institute’s Tax and Public Policy team met with the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke TD to discuss current sentiment among SMEs and the challenges they face in terms of labour, operating and regulatory costs. At the meeting, we continued to highlight the difficulties that the Enhanced Reporting Requirement is causing for businesses, and we urged for the introduction of a monthly or even quarterly reporting requirement, rather than the current ‘on or before’ obligation. In terms of the recent increases in the costs of doing business, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has a broad range of grants available and information on these can be found here. We expressed our support for these vital sources of funding for businesses, while also acknowledging the challenges some smaller businesses face in accessing the grants.

The OECD has published second round Peer Review Reports on the exchange of information on request for Madagascar, Oman, Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago. The assessed jurisdictions are expected to follow up on any recommendations made and the ultimate goal is to effectively implement the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request for tax purposes.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published FRED 87 Draft amendments to FRS 102  The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland. FRED 87 proposes amendments to FRS 102 to reflect recent amendments to IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and the subsequent replacement of IAS 1 with IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements. Specifically, it proposes changes to the prescribed formats for balance sheet and profit and loss accounts where an entity applying FRS 102 uses the option to adapt the presentation format. The changes are proposed to maintain the existing level of alignment with IFRS 18 and IAS 1. Entities that choose not to adapt their financial statements under FRS 102 will not be impacted by the proposed amendments. FRED 87 remains open for public comment until 10 October 2025.

Minister Burke has signed into law Statutory Instrument S.I. No. 309/2025- European Union (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) Regulations 2025. The purpose of this Statutory Instrument (S.I.) is to transpose the ‘stop the clock’ EU Directive into Irish law and to amend the anomalies that were present in previous S.I.s relating to the transposition of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in Ireland.   By way of background the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) became law in 2023, and it was transposed into Irish law in July 2024 by virtue of S.I. No. 336/2024 - European Union (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) Regulations 2024 (and subsequently S.I. No. 498/2024 - European Union (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) (No. 2) Regulations 2024, which amended some of the previous legislation)  There were a number of anomalies in these regulations which caused concern and challenges for businesses implementing the CSRD. The Institute, along with other professional bodies and law firms, made numerous representations to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment outlining the amendments that were required to give clarity on the implementation of the CSRD. The ‘wave 1’ reporters which were subject to the CSRD published their first sustainability statements earlier this year. Just as they were being published the European Commission published their ‘omnibus simplification package’ the purpose of which is to simplify sustainability reporting, and it also included a proposal to ‘stop the clock’ by delaying the commencement of reporting obligations by two years for the majority of companies.   The current state of play  Minister Burke recently published statutory instrument S.I. 309/2025, European Union (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) Regulations 2025 to transpose these changes into Irish law.   A summary of the changes are as follows:  ‘Stop the clock’: The S.I. transposes this EU Directive into Irish law and delays the application of the CSRD for the majority of Irish companies (wave 2 and wave 3) by two years. Large Irish incorporated entities will publish their first report in 2028 based on data for the 2027 financial year. SMEs with securities listed on an EU regulated market, small and non-complex institutions, captive insurance and reinsurance undertakings will issue their first reports in 2029 based on data for the 2028 financial year.  Definition of net turnover: The definition of ‘net turnover’, which is one of the thresholds for determining if a company is in scope for CSRD reporting, has been amended. The initial definition of turnover was broader in scope and for companies whose ordinary activities included the making or holding of investments, the gross revenue derived from such activities. Therefore, there were a number of companies, primarily in the funds sector and Special Purpose Vehicles, which were captured which may not otherwise have fallen within scope of the CSRD. The revised definition aligns more closely with the definition of ‘net turnover’ under the EU Accounting Directive.  Ineligible entities: Under the original S.I. relating to the CSRD, there was confusion in Ireland regarding  ‘ineligible entities’ and if they were potentially in scope for CSRD reporting irrespective of their size. The revised regulations expressly exclude these from scope and ‘ineligible entities’ are only in scope for the CSRD if they meet the CSRD thresholds.  Subsidiary exemptions: There was uncertainty under the original transposition as to whether or not an Irish subsidiary could claim a subsidiary exemption if its sustainability information was included in the consolidated report of an EU parent company. In the revised regulations the provisions on subsidiary exemptions have been expanded, consistent with the CSRD, so that an Irish in-scope company may be exempt from preparing its own sustainability report where the information is included in the report of an EU parent, drawn up in accordance with the consolidated sustainability reporting obligations of the EU Accounting Directive, as amended by the CSRD.  Ultimate parent company reporting: There was, in the initial CSRD regulations, the potential that all non-EEA parent companies of certain Irish companies had to prepare a sustainability report, and not just the ‘ultimate parent company’. The revised regulations have provided clarification on this matter and there is a new definition of ‘ultimate parent company’, and only that company now must prepare a report. The timeframe has not been amended by the revised regulations, and reporting obligations in respect of non-EEA undertakings apply beginning on or after 1 January 2028.