Budget 2013: The Ten Point Tax Plan for SMEs – Announced by Minister Noonan

Posted on December 5, 2012 by admin

The measures are as follows:
1. Reforming the 3 Year Corporation Tax Relief for Start Up Companies to allow unused
credits to be carried forward to help create jobs and improve cash flow

2. Amending the Close Company Surcharge by increasing the de minimis level to €2,000 to reduce the administrative burden and assist cash flow

3. Increasing the amount of expenditure eligible for the R&D Tax Credit on a full volume
basis (without reference to the 2003 base year) to €200,000 to encourage innovation and
help cash flow

4. Increasing the VAT cash receipts basis accounting threshold from €1m to €1.25m to help cash flow

5. Extending the Foreign Earnings Deduction for work related travel to Algeria, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal & Tanzania to help boost
demand for Irish goods and services abroad

6. Extending the Employment and Investment Incentive scheme to 2020 to help companies access funding

7. Extending the general rate and Young Trained Farmers rate of stock relief, and
amendments to the definition of registered partnerships for stock relief, to give a targeted
assistance to the farming sector

8. Introducing a Capital Gains Tax relief for Farmers for land restructuring to give a targeted
assistance to the farming sector

9. Reviewing the ‘carried interest’ provision in the tax code to help small businesses to
access funding

10. Announcing a joint Revenue and Department of Finance public consultation: ‘Taxation of Micro Enterprises: Reduction in Compliance Costs’ to identify ways to ease the
administrative burden.

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ALSO ANNOUNCED WAS:
- National Pensions Reserve Fund
• SME support Funds to provide equity as well as credit finance to the sector.

- Approval to the Credit Review Office to extend the team of reviewers so that SMEs
seeking assistance from the CRO receive a considered and timely response to their
application.

- Publication by the Credit Review Office of guidance for SMEs.
This is available on the CRO website at http://www.creditreview.ie. It provides advice for
SMEs on how to deal with their banks and their rights in various dealings with the banks.

Hotels Federation Calls For Positive Budget To Boost Stagnant Sector

Posted on November 12, 2012 by admin

The Irish Hotels Federation has called on the Government to take action in next month’s Budget 2013 to ensure tourism achieves a sustained recovery and lives up to its potential to create jobs and boost the economy.

In its pre-budget submission IHF said it would like to see the introduction of measures to improve tourism competitiveness, enable more effective marketing of Irish tourism and restore financial stability to the hotels sector, which currently employs over 50,000 direct jobs.

With overseas visitor numbers down almost 3% year to date and IHF said that declining visitor numbers from the British market, underscored the challenges faced in promoting Ireland as a tourist destination.

Jobseekers And Digital Tech To Combine To Aide Irish Gaming Sector

Posted on August 2, 2012 by admin

A new digital technology and games development programme, WebElevate, has been launched by Digital Skills Academy, in order to aide the fast growing digital tech and gaming sector in Ireland.

The scheme is part of the Higher Education Authority‘s Springboard programme.
WebElevate is an honours-degree level programme that develops talent for employment roles in the digital technology and digital gaming sectors, where there is strong jobs growth with over 4,500 jobs announced in these sectors since the start of the year.

The programme is free-of-charge for participants, who are eligible for the Springboard programme.

Some 200 jobseekers, who aspire to work in the digital technology and digital gaming sectors, will secure places, it said.

Happy…eh…Cork Day!?

Posted on August 2, 2012 by admin

Could Cork City be getting it’s own international celebration? Well the Lord Mayor of the city, Emmet O’Halloran, certainly thinks they should.

He says he is calling for a world-wide holiday to celebrate all things about the region.

He says it would be akin to other holidays around the world such as Catalunya Day or the Annual Holiday of Quebec.

Speaking about the idea he said that he believes people of the area should have a special day that allows them to celebrate their unique culture and heritage.

“We have seen how other regions across the world do the same and why should Cork be any different?” he said.

He believes the concept of such a holiday could also deliver an economic dividend to the region.

Although the suggestion may have raised a few eyebrows, this seems like a pretty good idea. This is an example thinking differently and getting people to come out in force to find out more about the great things in their city and county. We hope it comes to fruition and we hope that other towns are inspired to follow suit.

5 Irish Companies Go Bust For Every Day In July

Posted on July 30, 2012 by admin

Five Irish companies collapsed each day this month – and half of the businesses stress-tested across the economy showed signs that they were on the brink of failure, according to the latest figures from Vision-net.

The figures covering the period between July 1 and July 25, show that 131 companies were declared insolvent – down 15pc on the same month last year.

Of those, 97 were liquidated, 33 entered receivership, and an examiner was appointed to one company.
This month, Vision-net stress-tested 9,428 Irish companies – and 49pc were found to be at high risk of failure.

Companies in the hospitality, construction, IT, motor, and wholesale and retail sectors were least likely to survive, according to Vision-net’s analysis.

The month of July recorded 2,750 company and business start-ups, compared to 2,871 in July last year.

Trends: Ireland’s Disposable Income Rises, But So Does Money Being Saved

Posted on July 26, 2012 by admin

The gross disposable income of households was nearly €22bn in Q1 2012 – an increase of €771m or 3.6% compared with the same quarter of 2011, latest figures from the CSO show.

Higher wages (+€170m) and profits of the self employed (+€365m) along with lower interest payments (-€272m) were the main factors which contributed to the increase in household disposable income over this period, it said.

But there was little change in household expenditure between the first quarter of 2012 and the corresponding quarter of 2011 (€19.4bn compared with €19.37bn).
As a result, gross household savings increased from €2.4bn in Q1 2011 to €3.2bn in Q1 2012.
The derived gross savings ratio, which expresses savings as a percentage of gross disposable income, increased from 11.2% in Q1 2011 to 14.2% in Q1 2012.

This will come as bad news for the retail sector. While it seems there is more disposable income out there, more and more people are choosing to save that money instead of spending. Those figures may rise as the budget looms at the tail end of this year.

Target of 911 Jobs Set For High Potential Startups Initiative

Posted on July 26, 2012 by admin

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD today announced that 911 new jobs will be created over the next three years in 53 new high potential start-up companies supported by Government through Enterprise Ireland.

Today’s announcement relates to companies to which support has been provided in the first six months of 2012 under Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Ups Programme. Both the number of investments and the number of jobs to be created are significantly up on the same period last year (755 jobs/42 companies). These companies come from a wide range of sectors including the innovative sectors that the Government is targeting for growth such as financial services, ICT, digital games, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Making the announcement, Minister Bruton said:

“Central to the Government’s plan for jobs and growth is developing a strong engine of indigenous business. We have a base of multinational companies located here that is the envy of many other countries. What we must also do if we are to create the jobs we need is to create a base of indigenous companies that match that level of success. As I have said before, our aim is not only to attract the next Google or Microsoft to Ireland, but to make it possible for the next Google or Microsoft to start-up in Ireland.

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