Entrepreneur Relief and Retirement Relief

Oh, the Relief!

It is an unfortunate fact of business life that at some point, your own interactions with your company must eventually come to an end. Whether or not you wish to wind your company down entirely, we have spoken in the past about the importance of having an exit strategy in place to ensure a problem-free transition during this time, but some may not know that there are a couple of relief options already in place in Ireland which may be of assistance during this time of major change. Entrepreneur Relief and Retirement Relief can in fact be used in conjunction with one another and may offer some much needed relief when exiting your business.

If the time has come for you to dispose of your business these options of tax relief might be of great benefit to you. In 2014 it was decided that a new relief aimed at entrepreneurs needed to be brought into effect as taxation issues had created a great many challenges for Irish entrepreneurs, who are the essential framework of Irish business life. Entrepreneur Relief offers tax relief to entrepreneurs at all stages of their lives to support the reinvestment of capital acquired from the disposal of business assets. Retirement Relief, on the other hand of course applies only to the retirement stage.

Entrepreneur Relief is especially beneficial to all entrepreneurs under retirement age as it offers a reduced rate of CGT (Capital Gains Tax) to entrepreneurs disposing of their business up to a limit of €1million. This relief reduces the tax rate to just 10% from 33%. Naturally, as with all relief options, some conditions are in place to restrict those who are eligible to apply. Your business must be a currently trading company and you must hold proof of active engagement with the company i.e. you must hold or have held at least 5% shares in the business or have spent at least 50% of your working time in the business over the previous three years.

Interestingly, Retirement Relief can be used on the same disposal as Entrepreneur Relief and applies to individuals over the age of 55. Again there are a number of qualifying conditions that apply here. The disposal must be made by an individual (not a company) aged 55 or over, the disposal must be of qualifying assets and the individual must have been a working director for a minimum of 10 years if the disposal is related to a family company. Retirement is not a requirement of this relief.

We would advise that anyone interested in either or both of these relief options look into them in great detail before organising an application in order to maximise the benefit to you and your business.

Should you require any help, advice or guidance on any financial or business matters, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here at EcovisDCA, where we will be happy to support you in getting your business to the next level.