Revenue Note for Guidance

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Revenue Note for Guidance

S505 Specified Individuals

Summary

(1) A specified individual is an individual who subscribes on his/her own behalf for eligible shares in a qualifying company.

Details

(2) Where it is the individuals first such investment, in each of the 3 years of assessment prior to the year of assessment that comes immediately before the year of assessment in which the individual makes a relevant investment, that individual may have been in receipt of income otherwise than employment income (whether from an employment held in the State or abroad) in excess of the lesser of the aggregate of the individual’s employment income and €50,000.

Share Ownership Test

(3) The individual must, throughout a period (in this note and in the section referred to as the “specified period”)-

  • of one year beginning on the date of issue of the shares, or
  • operations, of one year beginning on the date it so begins to carry on such operations,

possess at least 15 per cent of the issued ordinary share capital of the company in which he/she makes a SURE investment. Where an individual makes two SURE investments this requirement applies in respect of both.where the company is not at that date carrying on the required trading.

Restriction on ownership of other companies

(4)(b) The individual at the specified date in relation to his/her first SURE investment in a company or within a twelve-month period immediately preceding that date, either directly or indirectly, must not possess or have possessed or must not be or have been entitled to acquire more than 15 per cent of -

  • the issued ordinary share capital,
  • the loan capital (within the meaning of section 500(5)(b)) and the issued share capital,
    or
  • the voting power,

(5) of any company other than the company in which they make that relevant investment or a company which during a period of 3 years ending on the specified date in relation to an individual’s first relevant investment in a company, was not entitled to any assets, other than cash on hand or a sum of money no greater than €130 and did not carry on a trade, profession, business or other activity, and did not pay charges on income.

(4)(a) The “specified date” is -

  • where the SURE investment consists of only one subscription for eligible shares, the date of that subscription, or
  • where the SURE investment consists of more than one subscription, the date of the last such subscription.

Exception for small companies

(6)(a) “an accounting period” is an accounting period determined in accordance with section 27.

(6)(b) A company is treated as carrying on wholly or mainly relevant trading activities, where it receives not less than 75 per cent of its total income from the trade over a period of 3 accounting periods in the case of tourist traffic undertakings and 90 per cent of its total income from the trade over a period of 3 accounting periods in the case of other relevant trading activities.

(6)(c) An individual is not to be treated as having failed to satisfy the requirements as to not owing more than 15 per cent of another company, merely because the individual fails to satisfy those requirements in relation to only one other company -

  • which exists wholly or mainly for the purposes of carrying on relevant trading activities, and
  • where that company’s turnover in each of the 3 accounting periods immediately preceding the accounting period of that company in which the specified dates falls does not exceed €127,000

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2021