Finance Bill 2011

The Finance Bill 2011 was published recently and is fast tracking its way through the houses of the Oireachtas this week.  It gives effect to the measures announced by the Minister for Finance on Budget Day, 7^th December last. A previously unannounced measure which had been contained in the Finance Bill, the proposal to change the pay and file deadline for self-assessed taxpayers from 31^st October to 30^th September for the 2011 year of assessment onwards, has now been left out of the committee-stage phase of the Finance Bill. This had been proposed to help improve the assessment of tax performance in advance of the usual December Budget, but resistance to this proposal from the Independent TD’s appears to have forced the Minister for Finance to rescind on this point.

The Finance Bill is also amending the restrictions announced in the Budget in relation to property based tax incentives, as all property investors and landlords will be glad to hear. The government has undertaken to prepare an economic impact assessment of the measures proposed. Once this has been published, the measures proposed will only take effect from the beginning of the tax year following this.  In practical terms, this means that the restrictions can only apply from 1^st January 2012 at the earliest.

As the Finance Bill 2011 is being pushed through both houses of the Oireachtas this week, it will only be when the Bill is enacted that the full extent of the measures and proposals will be concrete.

For further information, please contact Cliodhna Grant, OSK Tax.