Embracing a positive perspective is a key ingredient for personal wellbeing. Aaron O’Connell asks you to consider whether you’re a glass half full or glass half empty person, and he provides a useful exercise to help you view life with a different filter and to boost your well-being. Some questions for you to consider Do you have tendency to see things positively where you are focusing on the good things that happen around you, or do you focus on the negatives, those obstacles and problems you face?  If you have a to-do list and you manage to successfully complete 19 out of 20 things, are you happy about the long list of things you’ve accomplished, or are you upset about that one thing that you didn’t get to finish? It’s your choice A hundred good things (little highlights) and one bad thing (a little low-light) might happen during your day. You have the opportunity to appreciate and remember all the good things, or to focus only on the bad things. You can look at life through a different filter. Embracing a positive perspective One useful exercise I recommend to the athletes, students and business people I work with, and indeed practice myself every night at bedtime, is to recall seven positive things that happen during the day. It’s something I picked up from internationally acclaimed sport psychologist, Dr. Terry Orlick. Before you sleep, look back over your day chronologically and highlight those good things that happened. They don’t have to be major events. Little highlights will do. “I had a lovely breakfast.” “The sun was shining today.” “I got a call from a good friend.” “I went for a lovely walk today.” You could begin this exercise by recalling three positives and increase by one each time after a few days. Look for different ones each day. As Dr. Orlick would say, it’s like “using a yellow magic marker to highlight all the good things you do, see, hear, taste, feel, and learn in a day.” Even better, write them down in a journal or on your phone. You’ll get a buzz out of revisiting and re-reading these when you’ve had a tough day. Using a different filter and living with a positive perspective is like becoming your own best friend. It’ll change your outlook in life for the good. Challenge yourself to look for seven highlights a day. Once you start looking for them and finding them, your day and your life immediately become better. You’ll experience a boost in wellbeing along with an increase in gratitude. Aaron O’Connell is the owner of Mind Your Performance. He provides consultancy and training in mental skills, mental well-being, and performance enhancement for the education, business, and sports sector. Thrive is the Institute’s dedicated wellbeing hub which provides emotional and practical support to our members, students, and their family members for life. Should you find yourself in a difficult situation, the team at Thrive can help steer you through life’s ups and downs.  Talk to us today on mobile: (353) 86 024 3294 or email us.  

Niall May, the new Managing Partner of RSM Ireland, outlines his strategic plans for the firm at a pivotal point in its evolution Niall May, FCA, was appointed Managing Partner of RSM Ireland in January following the recent announcement of a strategic investment in the firm by RSM UK. A partner and Head of Audit at RSM Ireland for close to 10 years, May has more than 25 years’ experience in professional services. He succeeds John Glennon, one of RSM Ireland’s founding partners, who will remain with the firm as a board member and Head of Strategy. Here, May talks to Accountancy Ireland about RSM Ireland’s plans to accelerate investment in service offerings and increase its share of the middle market. Can you give us an overview of RSM Ireland as it stands currently? We have 200 employees and ambitions to grow our headcount significantly in the short term.  We are an independent member of RSM International, the world’s sixth largest network of assurance, tax and consulting firms, and our business is centred on three key service lines – audit, tax and consulting, with a particular focus on middle market businesses, both locally and globally.  We work with domestic and international clients across a range of sectors, particularly life sciences, financial services, public sector, technology and media and telecommunications.  More than 65 percent of our audit and tax clients are active globally. Key for us is delivering innovative services to help them achieve their business goals.  The strength of RSM globally means we can work with member firms in other countries to serve our global clients with a presence here in Ireland and our domestic clients active in overseas markets. Our consultancy business spans a wide range of solutions, which include transformation, HR and change, finance support solutions, forensic investigations, restructuring advisory, technology and corporate finance services.  It is my ambition as Managing Partner to position RSM Ireland as the advisor of choice to the middle market and drive competition in the professional services sector. Talk us through the firm’s evolution since it was established in 1987 as Ryan Glennon & Company. The firm was established nearly 40 years ago by John Glennon and Liam Ryan and continues to have deep roots in the Irish business community.  We made the strategic decision to join the RSM International network in 2016 and that has been a game-changer in the firm’s evolution.  The RSM International network spans 120 countries with over 64,000 people in more than 800 offices. It has a very wide reach, particularly in the key markets we serve globally. Since 2016, RSM Ireland has doubled in size in both turnover and headcount and we have significantly increased the strength and depth of our services.  Our view is that all business now is essentially global and Ireland, in particular, is a very open economy. RSM is also very integrated and collaborative across borders, so we benefit from sharing skills, insights and resources.  RSM International saw record year-on-year growth in revenue of 16 percent with global revenues of US$9.4 billion for the 12 months to December 2023, and a 13 percent increase in global headcount.  Over the same period, RSM Ireland achieved revenue and people growth of 19 percent and 21 percent respectively. Tell us about RSM UK’s recent investment in RSM Ireland. We announced the strategic investment from RSM UK in November 2023. It is very significant for us because it will drive greater access to talent, technology, support and the services we can offer the corporate market. It will accelerate our ability to create long-term growth and drive increased competition in the professional services sector in Ireland. It also underlines the wider confidence in Ireland’s economy and the opportunities that exist in this market.  As well as increasing our physical footprint, the investment gives us access to greater resources, while better positioning the firm to target investments, invest in talent and technology and offer new services.  It will also allow us to create more opportunities for our staff, both new and existing. We aim to increase our graduate intake this year to over 50 while also creating exciting opportunities for experienced hires. What are the biggest changes you have seen in your market since joining RSM Ireland?  While Ireland remains an attractive destination for global companies to locate, build and grow their businesses, we are facing challenges right now relating to our infrastructural capacity, housing and energy supply.  We need to accelerate our response to overcoming these challenges so that Ireland can remain competitive.  Within the accountancy market, we are seeing a definite trend towards consolidation. For RSM Ireland, we could see that the investment from RSM UK offered a natural route to supporting and accelerating our next phase of the growth of our business. What will your strategic priorities be in your new role?  Looking first at developments in the global economy, I see opportunities to further grow our international client base.  A key ambition is to expand our teams across all service lines and develop new services, particularly in response to rising demand for environmental, social and governance, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence services.   We will be looking to develop our sector expertise further across financial services, life sciences, technology and media and telecoms.  Building strength in our global network will also be key though the RSM International network and expanding our International Desk Programme in key markets including the US. For the accountants you employ, what emerging skills are you focusing on now to future-proof their roles?  Embracing technology and adapting to ongoing changes in the world of work is key for all professionals.  Accountants, in particular, are very good at understanding the latest changes and developments and, more importantly, understanding the wider developments in business operations and the related risks.  We invest quite significantly in supporting our people as they adopt new technologies, and we will continue to do so. This is key for our business, because we absolutely must be able to understand our clients’ needs, and support and bring value to their business through meaningful, in-depth knowledge. I anticipate greater sustained spend on technologies to support further process automation and data analytics. This will be key to enabling our people to deliver rich insights to help clients improve business performance and stay ahead of developments in their markets.  What are your expectations for the economy in Ireland and globally in the months ahead?  On a positive note, current trends and projections point to calming inflation. There is now an expectation in Europe and beyond that interest rates will start to come down as soon as June.  I think we can expect to see a loosening of Central Bank fiscal policy and improved GDP forecasts, which will be positive for business. Business resilience will be tested in other ways, however. The war for talent will continue to rage and global tax developments – for example, Pillar Two tax reform and other initiatives – will bring their own challenges. We will also potentially have a new US administration, which may see changes in certain US policies. Despite all of this, I genuinely do believe that business leaders have good reason to feel more optimistic as they look ahead following a particularly turbulent period.

At Meta’s International Headquarters in Dublin, Majella Mungovan’s finance team is already reaping the rewards of using artificial intelligence in day-to-day operations The hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) continues to gather pace, as professionals across all sectors consider its potential impact on our future working lives. While many accountants grapple with the scope and reach of this emerging technology, however, Meta – the US-headquartered social media giant – is already several years into using AI in finance processes at its International Headquarters in Dublin.  “Five years ago, we decided we were going to really focus on using machine learning to drive efficiency across our finance team,” explains Meta’s Majella Mungovan, FCA. As Vice President of Financial Operations with Meta in Dublin, Mungovan leads a 150-strong global finance team. “Meta has four large finance operations around the world, one of which is in Dublin, where we serve people globally supported by several hundred people at our outsourcing partner,” Mungovan explains. “We are responsible for all activities relating to revenue as well as everything from accounting and reporting to financial operations, and risk and operational assessments to collections.  “Running a very large-scale operations team means we deal with many millions of transactions every year and doing this in a really efficient and scaled way is very important.” Growth, speed and efficiency The move to incorporate AI into processes at Meta’s financial operation in Dublin coincided with a period of intense growth for the company globally, Mungovan explains. “Meta achieved revenue of $100 billion faster than any other company in history, so we have gone through an enormous growth phase over the past 10 years,” she says. “When your company is undergoing explosive growth like this, speed, efficiency and scale are essential. Tasks you might be able to do manually in a slower moving environment have to be done faster and, for us, this meant looking at new technology to help us reach our goals.” Founded in February 2004, originally under the name Facebook, Meta opened its first Irish office in Dublin in 2009 with a team of just 25.  Now, with over 2,000 employees across 80 teams, the company’s new International Headquarters opened in Ballsbridge in Dublin in October 2023. It has additional sites in Co. Meath, where its data centre is located, and in Co. Cork, home to Meta’s Reality Labs.   Since its launch in Ireland, Meta has also undergone rapid growth globally, acquiring Instagram in 2012 followed by WhatsApp two years later. Employing over 66,000 people around the world, the tech giant continues to record milestones, with Facebook’s daily active users reaching a mammoth two billion in February 2024. Automation: first steps “When our global finance team in Dublin started looking at how we might use technology to help manage the sheer volume of work we were dealing with, our first step was to consider very basic automation rules,” Mungovan says. “We built some fairly rudimentary machine learning models that could make some decisions on our behalf. Each machine learning model is essentially an algorithm.  “You ‘plug in’ a large number of criteria to assess whether or not a decision needs to be made and the model learns and improves over time.  “Our first use case was the credit decisioning process, using internal and external data related to customer-recommended decisions. Over time, our machine learning models have become increasingly sophisticated to the point now where they can reliably cover the vast majority of our decisions where they have been rolled out.”  Mungovan’s team has also been exploring how natural language processing might be used to automate some parts of the revenue processes used in customer support. “We are operating in a very heavily automated world. In the last year in particular, we’ve been able to explore new technology Gen AI and this has allowed us to really accelerate the progress we’ve been making in automation over the last five years,” she says. “We can now move to touchless processes and transactions in a much more complete and efficient way – for example, with the helpdesk for our finance team.  “When a customer gets in touch and says, ‘I need help with my invoice,’ we can plug in different AI agents so we can see who the customer is and what kind of problem they are facing with their invoice.  “The agents can read the customer’s messages and communicate with them, in many cases resolving the issue and, in others, ensuring the query reaches the right people so it can be resolved and the ticket closed out quickly.” Accuracy and speed are essential when it comes to customer care. “Our priority is that the customer gets the answer they need as quickly as possible and that, at the same time, we are operating as efficiently as we can in resolving issues before they escalate or cause friction internally,” Mungovan says. Her team is also now using machine learning for cash flow forecasting. “This helps us to understand the customer’s payment behaviour,” Mungovan explains. “If there is any deviation from that, we can very quickly and accurately predict what free cash flow will look like across the company.” What to expect Based on her experience working with AI and machine learning for the first time, Mungovan says that careful preparation is a must at the outset. “It’s a huge learning curve for everyone involved, particularly those of us from a finance background who have to get to grips with a new technology that, in turn, can have a big impact on how we do our work, and on our capabilities,” she says. “My advice is to get out there and find out what other professionals and organisations are doing. Attend conferences and other events, read papers and case studies. Keep an eye on what people are sharing and reach out and ask questions.” Preparing to introduce AI for the first time will likely take “a lot longer” than you expect, she adds.  “You’re going to have to bring a lot of people through the process and everyone will want to make sure that the new model is working and fit-for-purpose before it’s introduced into the ‘live’ working environment. You’re looking at a learning phase of at least 12 months before you can expect to see any kind of return-on-investment.” Machine learning models need to learn and that takes time, Mungovan says. “They tend to generate a lot of false positives at the outset. It probably took us two years to get to a place where our models were really starting to generate a decent return-on-investment, but once we had some traction, they evolved very quickly after that.  “Now, we regard the project beyond its ability to deliver greater efficiencies; we also think about it from an assurance perspective. We have monitoring programmes running continuously in the background, looking for anomalies, exceptions and errors.  Now that Meta’s finance team in Dublin is using AI day-to-day, Mungovan is confident that the technology will play an even bigger role in the years ahead. “Our large language models are becoming more and more helpful to us. The technology environment continues to evolve all the time. What we have now, we didn’t have six months ago. It’s quite extraordinary.” North Star Mungovan’s North Star is, she says, that all finance processes become “as ‘touch pointless’ as possible”. “I want my team examining anomalies and fixing issues at root, rather than having to deal individually with problems as they arise – right across the board from calculation and booking accounting entries to reconciliations, preparing commentary, analysing the movement on a general ledger account or managing expense categories.” Based on her own experience implementing AI, Mungovan believes the technology has great potential to elevate the role of Chartered Accountants and other financial professionals in the future. “I think the way we’re using technology in our own finance team at Meta really convinces me that AI and technological advancements will create more senior and sophisticated roles across finance and other functions,” she says.  “Meta is a very large company with ambitions to become an even larger company. We are growing so rapidly that we need to figure out efficient ways of scaling. AI and machine learning is delivering these efficiencies for our finance team. It is making us faster and improving our capabilities.”  Opportunity for the profession Mungovan believes the use of AI in accounting will become “the norm” in the years ahead as more and more organisations and professionals adopt the technology to support and enhance the finance function. “I remember when I was training to become a Chartered Accountant, people then were asking the same questions about technology and how it would affect the future of the profession, the jobs we do and the way we work. At that time, the big focus was Microsoft Excel and how it was going to reshape accounting norms,” she says. “I view AI in a similar light today. Over time, AI as a tool will fundamentally change the role of the accountant in the same way Excel transformed how things were done 20 or 30 years ago.  “AI will have the same kind of impact. It won’t replace the role of the accountant, but it will become a widely used tool, which will allow us to be more effective in our jobs.  “Ultimately, I think AI is something to be embraced rather than feared. I am really excited about the possibilities this technology will offer our profession. Rather than be frightened, people should see opportunity – and I think this opportunity will be immense.”

Ian Drennan, CEO of the Corporate Enforcement Authority, outlines the State agency’s plans and priorities for 2024 and beyond Collaboration between State regulators, statutory bodies and professional membership organisations, such as Chartered Accountants Ireland, is set to deepen as Government efforts to crack down on white collar crime and corporate corruption continue in the years ahead. “There is very significant work ongoing at State level seeking to further enhance Ireland’s capacity to tackle economic crime,” Ian Drennan, Chief Executive of the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA), explains. “The Advisory Council against Economic Crime and Corruption is developing a national strategy and the CEA is heavily involved in the formulation of that draft strategy for consideration by Government.” Dealing with economic crime into the future and ensuring that Ireland is “at the vanguard” of the highest standards in business regulation will require a significant level of State collaboration with the private sector and bodies such as Chartered Accountants Ireland, Drennan says. Corporate Enforcement Authority The CEA was established in July 2022 with the commencement of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021, replacing the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. Leo Varadkar, who was then Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said the new agency would have “real teeth” with the autonomy and resources needed to thoroughly investigate suspected wrongdoing, such as fraudulent trading and more complex company law breaches. The Act invested the CEA with the autonomy to appoint its own staff and structure itself to meet evolving demands in the future.  The CEA’s budget has been increased by 30 percent and its approved civilian staff complement by 14 additional officers. The Government has also increased the number of members of An Garda Síochána seconded to the CEA from seven to 16.  “This increased level of resourcing gives us capacity to deal with a greater caseload of suspected non-compliance with company law, be it civil or criminal in nature,” Drennan says. “The investigations that we conduct can be document-heavy and complex, with indications of wrongdoing regularly involving suspected serious offences under company law as well as crossing over into other codes of legislation, such as theft, fraud and money laundering,” Drennan explains. “One of the strengths of the CEA is its multi-disciplinary structure. In addition to having at our disposal both accounting and legal professionals, the Gardaí embedded within the organisation bring with them the full suite of powers that they enjoy as sworn police officers.  “This means that, when we are conducting investigations, they can apply to the District Court for warrants under other codes of legislation where the need arises. As a consequence of this organisational capability, it is commonplace for us at this stage to submit files to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions with recommendations for charges under both company law and other legislation.” Scope and remit The CEA’s remit spans investigation, prosecution and supervision of the corporate insolvency process as well as advocacy.  “While we investigate potential breaches of company law, that is only one side of the equation. We also place great importance on promoting compliance with company law, which we seek to do by providing accessible guidance to company directors and through our outreach activities,” Drennan explains.  The “vast majority” of companies will never have any kind of direct engagement with the CEA, he adds. “Most company directors are trying to do the right thing; we know that. They have a raft of challenges to deal with at the moment – high interest rates, inflation, rising energy costs and tight labour markets. “They must manage a wide range of legal and regulatory obligations, ranging from tax and health and safety to company law. In our experience, most company directors try to meet those obligations on an ongoing basis and to a high standard.” It is important that the CEA acts in a proportionate and resource-efficient manner and that the enforcement action chosen is commensurate with the underlying issues, Drennan adds.  “Where appropriate, we try to resolve issues of non-compliance on an administrative basis and without recourse to statutory powers. In other instances, that approach will not be appropriate and a more formal, or robust, approach will be warranted,” he says. The CEA also provides guidance to assist company directors in discharging their responsibilities under company law in what Drennan terms a “relatively non-technical and easy-to-understand forum”. “Prevention is better than cure and, in that context, the CEA’s website hosts a range of information and guidance materials that seek to assist company directors in understanding their duties and obligations and shareholders, creditors and the wider public in understanding their rights,” he says. “It is much more cost-effective from our perspective to assist people in complying with the law in the first instance.” Company law amendments Drennan welcomes the recent publication of the General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Bill 2024 by Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary, TD. Announcing its publication on 15 March, Calleary said the Act would introduce “practical, pro-enterprise” reforms in support of a competitive economy while also maintaining a robust company law framework.  Amendments proposed in the Bill include allowing companies and industrial and provident societies to hold virtual general meetings when the current COVID-related interim legislation expires at the end of the year. It also proposes removing the automatic loss of the audit exemption in respect of the first instance of late filing with the Companies Registration Office by small and micro companies. Drennan particularly welcomes proposals to create new offences regarding the obstruction and intimidation of CEA officials.  “These proposals send out the very clear signal that obstructing or threatening a CEA officer will not be tolerated and that anyone who does so risks facing a lengthy term of imprisonment,” he says. “Balance is important. Company law is crucial, but it must support business as well as safeguarding responsible ways of doing business. “Company directors can forget to file an annual return; they can forget to hold an AGM. These oversights can be rectified relatively easily.   “Their interaction with us in these instances could amount to just one or two letters to close the whole thing out. Generally speaking, the more co-operation we get, the more positive our disposition; the more people are willing to work with us, the less painful the exercise will be.” Beyond correspondence, the “next level up” in the CEA’s enforcement activity tends to involve civil enforcement, Drennan explains. “Our remit extends to the close to 300,000 businesses registered in Ireland. We deal with everything from ‘mom and pop’ operations, SMEs, charities and not-for-profits, all the way up to companies whose securities are publicly listed,” he says. Civil enforcement can involve director restrictions and disqualifications, as well as court applications for the purpose of seeking orders compelling companies, directors and other relevant parties, such as liquidators, to comply with their statutory obligations as regards restrictions and disqualifications. “We receive approximately 700 liquidators’ reports every year, so the process that flows from those reports, which includes scrutinising director behaviour and offering undertakings, accounts for a sizeable portion of our work,” Drennan says.  “Where directors choose to accept undertakings, they can avoid going to the High Court with the time and financial outlay that tends to involve. “Beyond this, the most invasive work we do involves investigations into serious suspected wrongdoing.”  This work tends to be complex, protracted in nature and frequently involves litigation, Drennan says.  The CEA has significant enforcement powers, including scope to issue directions, to enter and search premises under warrant, to arrest (a power conferred upon CEA officers who are also members of An Garda Síochána), and to bring summary criminal prosecutions in the CEA’s own name as well as to refer files to the DPP. “This is the part of our work that might involve a knock on the door at 6am but this is not, thankfully, required in the vast majority of cases we deal with,” Drennan says. Complaints, reports and referrals The CEA receives hundreds of complaints from members of the public each year as well as statutory reports from auditors and liquidators and statutory referrals from other State bodies, such as the CRO, the Revenue Commissioners, An Garda Síochána and the Central Bank of Ireland. “We also open investigations on our own initiative – as a result of media reports or our own analyses, for example,” says Drennan. Emerging trends The number of liquidator reports the CEA is responding to has risen markedly in 2024.  “They dropped during COVID because of businesses being closed and debt warehousing. Now, they are returning to pre-COVID levels, which in turn is driving up the numbers of restrictions and disqualifications,” says Drennan.   “At the same time, the Companies Registration Office has recommenced the involuntary strike-off of non-compliant companies deferred during COVID.   “A subset of these entities fall within our enforcement remit where directors have simply ‘walked away’ from insolvent companies owing debts rather than putting them into liquidation. “Those directors face the likelihood of being disqualified from acting as company directors, as that is not an appropriate or responsible manner in which to behave.” Looking to the future, Drennan concludes: “Our vision for the future is to continue to build the CEA’s presence, to continue to enhance operational capability, and to assist the vast majority of directors who are trying to do the right things by continuing to provide high quality, and accessible, information and guidance resources.  “By doing this and working with other stakeholders in the public and private sectors, the objective is to enhance Ireland’s reputation as a safe and well-regulated economy in which to do business and create employment.”

In Irish news, the recently announced amendments to the film tax credit take effect, a report published by the Parliamentary Budget Office highlights the risks that could impact Ireland’s corporation tax take and employees can now access their ERR data. In UK news, this week we take a further look at HMRC’s Raising Standards in Tax Advice consultation, and we bring you the key tax changes which take effect when the new tax year starts on 6 April.  Ireland The Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath TD, has signed commencement orders that increase the film tax credit project cap to €125 million and extend the tax credit until the end of 2028. The Parliamentary Budget Office has published a report highlighting the risks that could impact Ireland’s corporation tax take. Employee access to ERR data is now available.   UK We want to hear from you about HMRC’s Raising Standards in Tax Advice consultation for a hybrid regulatory model of joint HMRC and industry enforcement. Read the key tax changes which take effect when the new tax year starts on 6 April.   Keep up to date with all the latest Irish, UK, and international tax developments through Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Tax Newsletter. Subscribe to the Tax News by updating your preferences in MyAccount. You can also read this week’s EU exit corner here.  

Following European Commission approval, the Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath TD, has signed commencement orders for two amendments to the film tax credit. The first commencement order provides for an increase in the cap on eligible expenditure from €70 million to €125 million, as announced in Budget 2024. The second commencement order provides for the extension of the credit from its current end date of 31 December 2024 to 31 December 2028, as announced in Budget 2023.  Welcoming the amendments, Minister McGrath stated:  “The increase in the cap on eligible expenditure related to the cost of production of certain films to €125 million signals the Government’s intention to support the industry in capitalising on its success in recent years and to make Ireland a global leader in the area of high quality audio-visual production.  In addition, the extension of the relief provides certainty to the film industry that this important incentive for the sector will be available for a further four years.  I look forward to continued growth and employment opportunities for the Irish film sector in the years ahead.” 

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has published a report which provides an analysis of corporation tax revenue growth. The report highlights the risks affecting corporation tax, including concentration risk, volatility risk and the implications of international tax reforms. It also discusses tax windfalls, transfer pricing, and places Ireland’s corporation tax yield in an international context.  The report notes that corporation tax revenue is heavily reliant on the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector. Changes in the business operations or tax strategies of those that contribute the most would have significant impact on Ireland’s fiscal health.  Failure to adequately address Ireland’s infrastructural capacity constraints in relation to housing, utilities and transport could impact FDI. The report recommends strategic policy decisions to enhance Ireland’s competitiveness in non-tax areas such as infrastructure to mitigate the systemic risks associated with our corporation tax receipts. 

Revenue has confirmed that the concessional tax treatment for Ukrainian citizens working remotely in Ireland for Ukrainian employers will continue to apply for the tax year 2024, subject to qualifying conditions. The concessional treatment will cease with effect from 1 January 2025. From this date, the Irish-based employee and the Ukrainian employer will be required to comply with the Irish tax requirements arising from the exercise of the duties of the Ukrainian employment in Ireland.   Revenue's concessional treatment applies solely to the employment income paid by a Ukrainian employer to their Irish-based Ukrainian employees performing the duties of their employment remotely from Ireland and who are working in the State as a result of the war in their country. The concession provides that in relation to Ukrainian employment income:  Irish-based employees of Ukrainian employers are not liable to Irish income tax and USC on Ukrainian employment income that is attributable to the performance of those employment duties in the State, and  The Ukrainian employers are not required to operate PAYE on such employment income.  Revenue also disregards the presence of these employees in Ireland for corporation tax purposes in respect of any company resident in Ukraine, where the employee, director, service provider or agent would be present in Ukraine but for the war there.  Any individual or relevant entity that avails of these concessional treatments should continue to retain evidence to support compliance with the qualifying conditions. 

Revenue has advised the Institute that employees can now view enhanced reporting requirement (ERR) submissions in their name via MyAccount from the PAYE Services section under the heading Expenses/Benefits. 

We have compiled the latest updates to various HMRC VAT publications, briefs and guidance. Readers should note that there are also numerous updates to VAT guidance and rules due to the UK’s departure from the EU. Who should register for VAT (VAT Notice 700/1); How VAT affects charities (VAT Notice 701/1); Change your VAT registration details; Buildings and construction (VAT Notice 708); Insolvency (VAT Notice 700/56); Group and divisional registration (VAT Notice 700/2); Claim a VAT refund for a new home or charity building if you're a DIY housebuilder; Claim a VAT refund for a conversion if you're a DIY housebuilder; Local authorities and similar bodies (VAT Notice 749); Claim a VAT refund as an organisation not registered for VAT; Insolvency (VAT Notice 700/56); Who should register for VAT (VAT Notice 700/1); Health professionals and pharmaceutical products (VAT Notice 701/57); Registering groups, divisions and joint ventures for VAT; How to fill in and submit your VAT Return (VAT Notice 700/12); Send details to support your VAT repayment claim; Check if you can register for the VAT Import One Stop Shop Scheme; Submit your Import One Stop Shop VAT Return; Register for the VAT Import One Stop Shop Scheme; Insolvency (VAT Notice 700/56); Refunds of UK VAT for non-UK businesses (VAT Notice 723A); Pay the VAT due on your One Stop Shop VAT Return; Burial, cremation and commemoration of the dead (VAT Notice 701/32); Revenue and Customs Brief 1 (2024): Live web streaming of funeral services; and Women's sanitary products (VAT Notice 701/18).  

In this week’s EU exit corner, we bring you the latest guidance updates and publications relevant to EU exit. The most recent Trader Support Service and Cabinet Officer Borders bulletins are also available. Miscellaneous updated guidance etc. Recently updated guidance, and publications relevant to EU exit are set out below:- Data Element 2/3: Documents and Other Reference Codes (Union) of the Customs Declaration Service; Data Element 2/3 Documents and Other Reference Codes (National) of the Customs Declaration Service (CDS); Data Element 2/3: Document and Other Reference Codes: Licence Types — Imports and Exports of the Customs Declaration Service (CDS); Moving parcels from Great Britain to Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework from 30 September 2024; Check last dates for deferment period adjustments in the Customs Declaration Service; and Simplified Customs Declaration Process: notification of non monetary amendment.

Revenue has updated the Tax and Duty Manual regarding the payment and receipt of interest and royalties without deduction of income tax. The updated manual reflects the introduction of the outbound payments defensive measures and provides additional guidance.  The updates are as follows:  in respect of the application of interest withholding tax to interest paid to Irish partnerships and foreign tax transparent entities (section 5.3), and  on payments of interest to tax transparent entities where members of those entities may avail of the rate of withholding tax provided for under the terms of a double taxation agreement (section 9.1.1).