Thursday 23 April | Flux, Dublin 2 | €25pp  The Leinster Society is excited to present an evening event celebrating the women redefining leadership across finance and business.  Where: Flux, Chatham Street, D02 PA06 When: Thursday 23 April How much: €25pp Time: 5.15pm - 8pm This event will be hosted by Leinster Society Chairperson Sarah Murphy and Chartered Accountants Ireland CEO Rosemary Keogh, and will spotlight a number of influential female leaders. Attendees will gain forward‑looking insights and practical guidance to navigate a rapidly changing landscape, from AI and regulation to culture and sustainability. With a strong focus on allyship and inclusive leadership, the event will highlight the shared responsibility in supporting women to thrive. Be part of a powerful conversation about leadership, ambition, and the future of finance. To book your ticket, please email LeinsterSociety@charteredaccountants.ie This event is kindly sponsored by AIB, and funded by Skillnet Ireland. Speakers Caroline Sherry, CFO & Executive Director, Hostelworld Caroline is a highly experienced finance leader with nearly two decades of senior financial management, strategy, and governance experience across global consumer, banking, and financial services organisations. Currently Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director at Hostelworld Group PLC, Caroline has held progressive leadership roles spanning FP&A, financial control, statutory reporting, and audit, including senior positions at Glanbia PLC and Ulster Bank DAC. Carolines background includes extensive board reporting, IFRS statutory reporting, audit management, and performance analysis, alongside earlier audit and advisory experience at PwC. In addition to executive roles, Caroline contributes at board level through non-executive and advocacy positions, reflecting a strong commitment to governance, inclusion, and sustainable business leadership. Caroline is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and a member of the Institute of Directors in Ireland. She also serves as a member of Balance for Better Business, an independent business-led Review Group established by the government to improve gender balance in senior leadership in Ireland, and serves on the Board of Neurodiversity Ireland, a charity supporting neurodivergent children and families. Lorna Conn, CEO, Cpl Lorna is an Independent Non‑Executive Director of Bord na Móna plc and Glenveagh Properties plc and an Advisory Board Member of UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Lorna is also incoming Chair and an Advisory Board Member of the 30% Club Ireland. A Chartered Director and a qualified Chartered Accountant, having trained with Deloitte, Lorna holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin and a Masters in Accounting from the Michael Smurfit Business School. Lorna has previously held senior roles in several public companies, in both Ireland and America. Kathy McDermott, CFO, Bidvest Noonan  Kathy is the Chief Financial Officer at Bidvest Noonan, a leading facilities services provider across Ireland & UK. She partners closely with the CEO and executive leadership team to support strategic growth and strong governance. She also leads the finance function across commercial finance, accounting, shared services, procurement, legal and risk.   Kathy has over 15 years’ experience in senior finance leadership roles across complex, multinational organisations. Prior to joining Bidvest Noonan, she held a number of leadership roles with Currys plc, including Head of Finance (UK&I) and Financial Controller for Ireland, where she led large teams through transformation, restructuring, systems change, and commercial decision‑making. Earlier in her career, she gained valuable international experience working in Australia within a global hospitality and services organisation, which broadened her leadership perspective and approach. She trained and qualified with KPMG Ireland, developing a strong technical foundation as both a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser.   Throughout her career, Kathy has led high‑performing teams, navigated organisational change, and built trusted relationships at executive and board level. She places strong emphasis on building trust, developing people, and creating inclusive environments where diverse perspectives are valued. She is actively involved in Bidvest Noonan’s Race Forward Community, supporting initiatives that promote cultural diversity, equity, and inclusion across the organisation. She is also Board Director (voluntary) of Community Credit Union for the past 6 years. Ursula Kelly, Cormac Tagging Ursula is the Managing Director of Cormac Tagging, a leading provider of livestock identification solutions in Ireland.   With a strong background in agriculture and rural entrepreneurship, Ursula has been recognised for her innovative contributions to the industry, including being named AIB Network Ireland Established Businesswoman of the Year 2024. She is currently scaling the business to include emerging markets in Africa and multiple states in the USA. She brings a wealth of expertise and vision to the helm of the company. With a strong background in accountancy, Ursula has built her career on a solid foundation of financial acumen and strategic thinking. Her professional journey began in the accounting sector, where she developed a keen understanding of business operations, financial management, and regulatory compliance. As a dynamic leader, Ursula is recognised for her forward-thinking approach and her ability to inspire teams to excel. Her leadership style is characterised by a commitment to innovation, integrity, and empowering those around her to achieve their best. Ursula is also a passionate advocate for female entrepreneurship especially in agriculture and the wider Ag sector, she supports and mentors’ women within the business community.  Under her direction, Cormac Tagging has grown in both reputation and influence, reflecting her dedication to excellence and her role as a trailblazer for women in leadership. Ursula is the only founding female board member of the industry-led Ag Tech Ireland.  In 2024 Ursula was named Network Ireland Established Businesswoman of the Year.  In 2025, Ursula served as an Irish Ambassador for the European Horizon project FLIARA, which aims to create a European-wide rural innovation ecosystem supporting women-led innovation in farming, agriculture, and rural areas and was also named The Image PwC Family Business Woman of the Year. MC / HOST Rosemary Keogh Rosemary is CEO of Chartered Accountants Ireland. Rosemary joined the Institute from the Houses of the Oireachtas where she held the role of Assistant Secretary General - Corporate and Members' Services. Prior to that, she was CEO of the Irish Wheelchair Association.  Rosemary is also a member of the Boards of Chartered Accountants Worldwide and the Global Accounting Alliance. Rosemary has significant experience working in business in a range of industries at Irish and European level. She also served for five years as a Board Member & Chair of Finance, Audit, Risk & Governance Subcommittee of the Charities Regulator, and a further five years as Chairperson of the National Disability Services Association.  Rosemary is a Fellow of ACCA and holds an MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour from DCU.     MC / HOST Sarah Murphy Sarah is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and has over 25 years' experience in financial services, particularly specialising in the asset and wealth management industry. Sarah has worked in both audit and advisory/regulatory roles and has provided services to an extensive range of global fund managers and service providers.  Sarah also leads the distribution practice within PwC Ireland working closely with Luxemburg counterparts to identify solutions to assist managers and other stakeholders with their distribution strategies and with regulation in the jurisdictions into which they sell.  Sarah is Chair of the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants Ireland having also held Vice Chair and Honorary Secretary officer positions over the past few years.  She is also an active participant in a wider context and has been a member of many industry committees including her current position on the Irish Funds Distribution Committee Sarah has presented extensively on industry related matters.

Chartered Accountants Ireland has reacted to today’s publication of the Critical Infrastructure Bill which aims to fast-track the approval processes for critical infrastructure projects in Ireland. Commenting on the Bill, Cróna Clohisey, Director of Members and Advocacy at Chartered Accountants Ireland said “As a professional body representing 40,000 businesspeople across the economy, we see this Bill as a significant step in the Government’s approach to addressing Ireland’s infrastructure challenges. “Engagement with our members has demonstrated that infrastructure deficits need to be addressed as a matter of urgency if Ireland is to achieve its growth ambitions, meet its energy, transport and water requirements, and its sustainability goals. It is encouraging, therefore, to see the Bill’s focus on coordination and collaboration between public bodies to facilitate the rapid approval of projects and programmes.” Grant Sweetnam, Head of Public Policy at Chartered Accountants Ireland, said: “For a small, open economy like Ireland, infrastructure is key to competitiveness. It is vital for maintaining the standard of living for our citizens, for attracting foreign direct investment, for supporting our SMEs and for ensuring Ireland remains one of the best locations to do business.” “Our infrastructure continues to be one of our most critical competitiveness deficits. It is essential that barriers are removed to facilitate investment in our infrastructure to safeguard Ireland’s social and economic interests.  We look forward to engaging constructively with Government and stakeholders on this issue.”

In Irish news, Revenue has published its 2025 Protected Disclosures report and has also issued updated guidance on qualifying health expenses. In UK news, we feature the second part of our series looking at the key tax changes taking effect in the Financial Year 2026 and tax year 2026/27. We also provide an update on recently published regulations which fast-track the utilisation of surplus advance corporation tax. In International news this week, the European Commission has published an overview of key taxation indicators which show a rebound in tax revenues in 2024. Ireland 1. Revenue has published its 2025 Protected Disclosures report providing details of relevant internal and external protected disclosures during the year. 2. Revenue has issued updated guidance relating to tax relief on qualifying health expenses. UK 3. The second in our series of articles looks at various key changes due to commence at the start of the new Financial Year 2026 and the tax year 2026/27. 4. Read about the new tax regulations which provide for an acceleration of relief for unrelieved surplus advance corporation tax balances. International 5. The European Commission has published Data on Taxation Trends providing an overview of key taxation indicators based on information up to 2024. 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 Cross-border developments and trading corner here.  

Revenue has published updated guidance on the Film Corporation Tax Credit with the introduction of a new section on claiming the enhanced tax credit for lower budget films, or as it is also known – the ‘Scéal uplift’. The guidance addresses the EU State Aid transparency requirements as well as removing obsolete details. The tax credit was introduced by Finance Act 2024 and applies to lower budget qualifying film productions certified on or after 20 May 2025. It is available, subject to certification by the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, for live action or animated feature films, with qualifying expenditure below €20 million. To qualify, certain key creative roles must also be carried out by Irish or EEA nationals or ordinary residents.

Revenue has updated its guidance for non-resident students who are exercising a short-term employment in the State to replace information previously included in paragraph 3 with a link to the guidance on PAYE exclusion orders.

In part one of this series looking at the key changes to UK tax legislation which took effect due to the commencement of either the new Financial Year 2026 from 1 April 2026 or the new tax year 2026/27 which began yesterday, April 6, we focused on Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax and measures affecting tax agents. In part two we take a look at key changes to the capital taxes, income tax, corporation tax, and capital allowances. Inheritance Tax (IHT) Reliefs From 6 April 2026, 100 percent IHT relief for both Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief are capped at a combined £2.5 million allowance per individual. Qualifying agricultural and business assets that exceed this threshold now receive 50 percent relief, resulting in a potential effective IHT rate of 20 percent (40 percent IHT rate x 50 percent unrelieved). However, each individual’s £2.5million allowance, or any amount of this which is unused, is transferable between spouses and civil partners, which essentially then can provide 100 percent relief on qualifying assets worth up to £5 million. This significant policy change was announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget and has been the subject of much criticism. Since that announcement, Chartered Accountants Ireland has consistently lobbied the UK government for a range of mitigations to the original policy which culminated when our UK Tax Manager, Leontia Doran, delivered oral evidence last October to the House of Lords Finance Bill Sub-Committee inquiry into these changes which you can view on parliamentlive.tv (4.55pm onwards). Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR) and Investors’ Relief (IR)  As a result of the increased rates of CGT which took effect from Autumn Budget Day on 30 October 2024, BADR and IR, which previously provided a reduced 10 percent rate of CGT on qualifying business disposals, increased from 10 percent to 14 percent from 6 April 2025. Both have now further increased to 18 percent from 6 April 2026. The lifetime limit (LL) for each remains unchanged at £1 million. As a result of the increase to each of these, their benefit has now been reduced to a saving of 6 percent compared to the maximum CGT rate of 24 percent, or £60,000 if the individual’s full LL is available on the relevant transaction. Dividend income tax rates To more closely align the rates of income tax on passive income with earned income, the dividend income tax rates increased for basic and higher rate taxpayers by 2 percent from 6 April 2026. The basic rate rose from 8.75 percent to 10.75 percent, whilst the higher rate increased from 33.75 percent to 35.75 percent. There is no change to the additional rate, which remains at 39.35 percent, nor has there been any change to the £500 dividend allowance. Although dividends generally continue to be more tax efficient as a form of cash extraction from a company compared to employment income, this increase reduces the tax benefit and therefore necessitates a fresh review of company profit extraction strategies. Corporation Tax (CT) The flat rate CT late filing penalties doubled from 1 April 2026 (the associated tax geared penalties for late filing are unchanged). These are now as follows for late CT returns: Up to three months late: £200 penalty increased to £1,000 for the third consecutive late return, and More than three months late: £400 penalty increased to £2,000 for the third consecutive late return. Although the rates of CT are unchanged in the Financial Year 2026, the increased higher rate of dividend tax has resulted in an associated increase in the rate of Section 455 tax which is payable by companies on loans to participators/associates of participators. This has therefore now increased to 35.75 percent. Other changes to CT, which took effect for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, include:  The exemption of UK-to-UK transactions from transfer pricing if there is no risk of tax loss,  Changes to the definition of ‘permanent establishment’ to align with that of the OECD’s Model Tax Convention, and The repeal of the diverted profits tax which has now been replaced with a new charging provision for unassessed transfer pricing profits.  Capital allowances From 1 April 2026 for companies and 6 April 2026 for unincorporated businesses, the main rate of writing down allowances (WDAs) was reduced from 18 percent to 14 percent. As a result, a hybrid rate applies for accounting periods straddling 1/6 April 2026. This reduction has been introduced to finance the new 40 percent First Year Allowance (FYA) for main rate expenditure incurred on or after 1 January 2026. HMRC has updated its guidance on issues that may affect how to file a company tax return which now includes the new 40 percent FYA. According to HMRC, it will update its Corporation Tax online service in April 2027 for the new FYA. To claim this new allowance before then, the following boxes on form CT600 should be completed: boxes 725 or 750 for claim amounts, and box 760 for qualifying expenditure.

Revenue has published updated guidance in paragraph 3.1 on the EU Mandatory Disclosure of reportable cross border arrangements to reflect amendments  arising from the transposition of Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226 (DAC8).  Paragraph 3.1 sets out the specified information to be provided to Revenue for each reportable cross‑border arrangement. The update confirms that an abstract summary of the business environment is no longer required in respect of reportable cross-border arrangements. Instead, a description of the relevant arrangements, along with any additional information that would assist a competent authority in assessing potential tax risk should be provided.

Revenue has published updated guidance on the Outbound Payments Defensive Measures. The new guidance provides additional detail and clarification on the application of the measures, including information on the ‘association’ test. The updated sections of the guidance are as follows: A new section 3.4.2 has been included concerning the application of the association test for Irish partnerships, New examples relating to associated entities and Irish partnerships are included in sections 3.4.3 and 3.4.4, Section 3.4.5 now includes updates concerning association via individual(s), and new examples are also included, Section 3.8 includes updated guidance and examples to confirm that Net CFC Tested Income tax (NCTI) under US tax law is regarded as similar to the controlled foreign company charge for the purposes of the outbound payment defensive measures, The text relating to the examples in section 5.1.2 and in section 5.1.4 have been updated, and A new section 5.1.5 has been included with examples concerning Investment Limited Partnerships. Several other minor amendments have been reflected throughout the guidance.

Revenue has published updated capital acquisitions tax (CAT) guidance on Business Relief to reflect the Finance Act 2025 amendments to sections 100 and 101 of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act 2003. New examples have been included in the guidance to reflect the relevant amendments.

Readers may recall that when the old Advance Corporation Tax (ACT) regime was abolished in 1999, this necessitated regulations to ensure that any unrelieved surplus ACT balances carried forward by companies could still be accessed via the ‘shadow ACT’ rules. Regulations have now been laid before Parliament to amend these rules. The former ‘shadow ACT’ rules involved a notional calculation of ACT paid on distributions made after 5 April 1999. The Government says that these rules have served their purpose. However, in recognition that some companies still have significant balances of unrelieved surplus ACT, the current regulations, which cancel all remaining shadow ACT balances, also allow companies to speed up utilisation of their remaining unrelieved surplus ACT balances.

Revenue has updated its guidance on tax relief available for qualifying health expenses to provide further clarifications, including information relating to the Common Conditions Service. The examples in the guidance have also been refreshed to reflect the increased standard rate bands and tax credits for 2025. The relevant updated sections are as follows: Paragraphs 2.2 and 3.2 have been updated to advise that, as a Revenue Administrative practice, tax relief will be available on charges incurred on the Common Conditions Service (CCS) pending the introduction of legislation formalising the position. Further details regarding this can be found in our earlier newsletter item. Clarification is provided in paragraphs 3.4 and 3.7 that an entitlement to tax relief on running costs associated which medical equipment or travel and accommodation costs, necessarily incurred in the provision of healthcare may apply as determined on the full facts and circumstances of the individual’s case. In this regard tax relief for such expenditure is not limited to those health conditions for which a flat rate amount is available as set out in paragraph 3.7.3. Paragraph 7 has been updated to outline how claims may be verified to ensure expenses incurred are in relation to 'healthcare' within the meaning of section 469 TCA 1997. Paragraphs 9.6, 11 and appendix 1 have also been updated in this regard. Paragraphs 9.3 and 9.4 have been updated to clarify that an individual may be eligible to claim tax relief on the maintenance costs referrable to the keeping and use of a trained dog. Although a flat rate is available in respect of such expenditure, tax relief is not limited to the flat rate referred to in the respective paragraphs. Paragraph 9.5 has been updated to provide clarity on tax relief available in respect of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and other forms of assisted human reproduction (AHR).   A decision tree has been added to aid taxpayers in determining if the medical expenses an individual incurs qualify for tax relief under section 469 TCA 1997.

In this week’s detailed miscellaneous updates which you can read more about below, HMRC has advised us that from April 2026 employment expenses and gift aid will be removed from the tax codes of some taxpayers if HMRC’s data shows that they are unlikely to be accurate or relevant. In other news this week: In a recent Agent Update, HMRC has published tips for making a valid claim for overpayment relief, The Tax Law Review Committee of the Institute of Fiscal Studies has published Tax and disability in the UK: review of trusts and other savings options which examines the existing disability trust regime in the UK for putting aside savings in respect of eligible disabled people, The latest schedule of HMRC Talking Points live and recorded webinars for tax agents are available for booking. Spaces are limited, so take a look now and save your place, and finally, Check HMRC’s online services availability page for details of planned downtime and the online services affected. Removal of employment expenses and gift aid from tax codes From April 2026, HMRC has begun to remove employment expenses and gift aid from the tax codes of some taxpayers if HMRC data indicates that including these in the taxpayer’s tax code is likely to be inaccurate or irrelevant. HMRC has advised us that employment expenses of over £120 are being removed from the person’s tax code from 2026/27 if at least one of the following criteria is met:  The person has no current pay as you earn (PAYE) income, There has been an employment gap of a full tax year since employment expenses were claimed, No self-assessment (SA) tax returns have been filed since 2021/22 where there are indicators that the expense should have been resubmitted via self-assessment, and The employment expenses included within the tax code are greater than those included in their 2022/23 SA tax return.  Higher rate gift aid relief will be removed from the taxpayer’s tax code where:  the same amount of relief has been included in their tax code for at least three tax years, and no SA tax returns have been filed for at least three years.    HMRC says that any taxpayers who believe they are incorrectly impacted by these changes should submit a claim via the usual processes to ensure they still claim the tax relief they are entitled to.