Source: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2000/act/3/section/23/enacted/en/html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 00:24:24
Document Index: 494627499

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 30', 'art 42', 'art 42', 'art 42', 'art 26', 'art 30']

Finance Act, 2000, Section 23
23.—(1) Part 30 of the Principal Act is amended—
(a) in section 770(1)—
(i) by the insertion. before the definition of “administrator”, of the following definition:
“ ‘additional voluntary contributions’ means voluntary contributions made to a scheme by an employee which are—
(i) contributions made under a rule or part of a rule, as the case may be, of a retirement benefits scheme (in this definition referred to as the ‘main scheme’) which provides specifically for the payment of members' voluntary contributions, other than contributions made at the rate or rates specified for members' contributions in the rules of the main scheme, or
(ii) contributions made under a separately arranged scheme for members' voluntary contributions which is associated with the main scheme;”,
(ii) by the substitution, in the definition of “proprietary director”, of “5 per cent” for “20 per cent”,
(b) in section 772—
(i) by the substitution of the following for paragraph (a) of subsection (3A):
“(a) The Revenue Commissioners shall not approve a retirement benefits scheme for the purposes of this Chapter unless it appears to them that the scheme provides for any individual entitled to a pension under the scheme who is—
(i) a proprietary director of a company to which the scheme relates, or
(ii) an individual entitled to rights arising from additional voluntary contributions to the scheme,
to opt, on or before the date on which that pension would otherwise become payable, for the transfer, on or after that date, to—
(II) an approved retirement fund, of an amount equivalent to the amount determined by the formula—
(i) in the case of a proprietary director, the amount equal to the value of the individual's accrued rights under the scheme exclusive of any lump sum paid in accordance with subsection (3)(f), and
(ii) in the case of any other individual, the amount equal to the value of the individual's accrued rights under the scheme which relate to additional voluntary contributions paid by that individual exclusive of any part of that amount paid by way of lump sum in accordance with subsection (3) (f) in conjunction with the scheme rules, and
B is the amount or value of assets which the trustees, administrators or other person charged with the management of the scheme (in this section referred to as ‘the trustees’) would, if the assumptions in paragraph (b) were made, be required, in accordance with section 784C, to transfer to an approved minimum retire ment fund held in the name of the individual or to apply in purchasing an annuity payable to the individual with effect from the date of the exercise of the said option.”,
(ii) by the substitution of the following for subparagraph (i) of paragraph (b) of subsection (3A):
“(i) that the retirement benefits scheme or, as the case may be, the relevant part of the scheme was an annuity contract approved in accordance with section 784,”,
(iii) in subsection (3B)—
(I) by the deletion of subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (a), and
(II) by the insertion, in paragraph (b), of “in the case of a proprietary director,” before “paragraph (f)”, and
(iv) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (3B):
“(3C) Where the rules of a retirement benefits scheme provide for the purchase of an annuity from a company carrying on the business of granting annuities on human life, references in subsection (3A) to the date on which a pension would otherwise become payable shall, in relation to that retirement benefits scheme, be construed as references to the latest date on which such an annuity must be purchased in accordance with those rules.”,
(c) in section 784, by the substitution of the following for subsection (2B):
“(2B) (a) Where an individual opts in accordance with subsection (2A), any amount paid to the individual by virtue of that subsection, other than an amount payable by virtue of paragraph (b) of subsection (2), shall be regarded as a payment of emoluments to which Schedule E applies and, accordingly, the provisions of Chapter 4 of Part 42 shall, subject to paragraph (b), apply to any such payment.
(b) The person making a payment to which paragraph (a) refers shall deduct tax from the payment at the higher rate for the year of assessment in which the payment is made unless that person has received from the Revenue Commissioners a certificate of tax free allowances or a tax deduction card for that year in respect of the individual beneficially entitled to the payment.”,
(d) in section 784A—
(i) in the definition of “qualifying fund manager” in subsection (1)—
(I) by the substitution of the following for paragraph (a)—
“(a) a person who is a holder of a licence granted under section 9 of the Central Bank Act, 1971 , or a person who holds a licence or other similar authorisation under the law of any other Member State of the European Communities which corresponds to a licence granted under that section,”,
(II) by the substitution of the following for paragraph (j):
“(j) the holder of—
(i) an authorisation issued by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment under the European Communities (Life Assurance) Framework Regulations of 1984 ( S.I. No. 57 of 1984 ) as amended, or
(ii) an authorisation granted by the authority charged by law with the duty of supervising the activities of insurance undertakings in a Member State other than the State in accordance with Article 6 of Directive No. 79/267/EEC1 , who is carrying on the business of life assurance in the State, or
(iii) an official authorisation to undertake insurance in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway pursuant to the EEA Agreement within the meaning of the European Communities (Amendment) Act, 1993 , and who is carrying on the business of life assurance in the State,”,
(III) by the substitution of the following for paragraph (l):
“(l) a firm approved under section 10 of the Investment Intermediaries Act, 1995 , which is authorised to hold client money, other than a firm authorised as a Restricted Activity Investment Product Intermediary, where the firm's authorisation permits it to engage in the proposed activities, or a business firm which has been authorised to provide similar investment business services under the laws of a Member State of the European Communities which correspond to that Act;”,
(ii) by the insertion in subsection (1) of the following after paragraph (b):
“(c) Nothing in this Part shall be construed as authorising or permitting a person who is a qualifying fund manager to provide any services which that person would not otherwise be authorised or permitted to provide in the State.
(d) Any reference in this section to a distribution in relation to an approved retirement fund shall be construed as including any payment or transfer of assets out of the fund or any assignment of assets out of the fund, including a payment, transfer or assignment to the individual beneficially entitled to the assets, other than a payment, transfer or assignment to another approved retirement fund the beneficial owner of the assets in which is the individual who is beneficially entitled to the assets in the first-mentioned approved retirement fund, whether or not the payment, transfer or assignment is made to the said individual.”,
(iii) by the substitution of the following for subsections (2) to (7):
“(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), exemption from income tax and capital gains tax shall be allowed in respect of the income and chargeable gains arising in respect of assets held in an approved retirement fund.
(3) Subject to subsection (4)—
(a) the amount or value of any distribution by a qualifying fund manager in respect of assets held in an approved retirement fund shall be treated as a payment to the person beneficially entitled to the assets in the fund of emoluments to which Schedule E applies and, accordingly, the provisions of Chapter 4 of Part 42 shall apply to any such distribution, and
(b) the qualifying fund manager shall deduct tax from the distribution at the higher rate for the year of assessment in which the distribution is made unless the qualifying fund manager has received from the Revenue Commissioners a certificate of tax free allowances or a tax deduction card for that year in respect of the person referred to in paragraph (a).
(4) (a) Where the distribution referred to in subsection (3) is made following the death of the individual who was prior to death beneficially entitled to the assets of the approved retirement fund, the amount or value of the distribution shall be treated as the income of that individual for the year of assessment in which that individual dies and, subject to paragraph (b), subsection (3) shall apply accordingly.
(b) Subsection (3) shall not apply to a distribution made following the death of the individual who was prior to death beneficially entitled to the assets in an approved retirement fund where the distribution is made—
(i) to another such fund (hereafter in this subsection referred to as ‘the second-mentioned fund’) the beneficial owner of the assets in which is the spouse of the said individual, or
(ii) to, or for the sole benefit of, any child of the individual, or
(c) Where, in a case referred to in paragraph (b), the distribution is made—
(i) to a person who had attained the age of 21 years at the date of death of the individual beneficially entitled to the assets in the approved retirement fund, or
(ii) following the death of the beneficial owner of the second-mentioned fund, not being a distribution to or for the sole benefit of a child of that owner who at the time of death of that person had not attained the age of 21 years,
the qualifying fund manager shall deduct tax from the distribution at the standard rate of income tax in force at the time of the making of such a distribution, and—
(I) notwithstanding anything contained in any provision of the Income Tax Acts, the amount so charged to tax shall not be treated as income for any other purpose of those Acts, and
(II) the provisions of Chapter 4 of Part 42 and Regulations made in accordance with that Chapter shall, with any necessary modifications, apply to any deduction made under this subsection as if such a deduction were made in accordance with Regulation 25(2) (b) of the Income Tax (Employments) Regulations 1960 ( S.I. No. 28 of 1960 ).
(5) For the purposes of this section, Chapter 1 of Part 26 shall apply as if references in that Chapter to pension business were references to moneys held in an approved retirement fund.
(7) (a) At any time when the qualifying fund manager—
the qualifying fund manager shall ensure that there is a person resident in the State and appointed by the qualifying fund manager to be responsible for the discharge of all duties and obligations relating to approved retirement funds which are imposed on the qualifying fund manager by virtue of this Chapter.
(b) A qualifying fund manager shall be liable to pay to the Collector-General income tax which the fund manager is required to deduct from any distribution by virtue of this Chapter and the individual beneficially entitled to assets held in an approved retirement fund, including the personal representatives of a deceased individual who was so entitled prior to that individual's death, shall allow such deduction; but where there are no funds or insufficient funds available out of which the qualifying fund manager may satisfy the tax required to be deducted, the amount of such tax for which there are insufficient funds available shall be a debt due to the qualifying fund manager from the individual beneficially entitled to the asset in the approved retirement fund or from the estate of the deceased individual, as the case may be.”,
(e) in section 784C—
(i) by the substitution of the following for subsection (7):
“(7) The provisions of section 784A shall, with any necessary modifications, apply to income and chargeable gains arising from, and to distributions in respect of assets, held in an approved minimum retirement fund as they apply to assets held in an approved retirement fund.”
(ii) by the deletion of subsections (8) and (9),
(f) by the deletion of section 784E.
(2) (a) Paragraph (b)(iv) of subsection (1) shall be deemed to have come into force and shall take effect as on and from 6 April 1999.
(b) Paragraphs (b) (iii) (I), (d) (iii), (e) and (f) of subsection (1) shall apply as regards an approved retirement fund or an approved minimum retirement fund, as the case may be, where the assets in the fund were first accepted into the fund by the qualifying fund manager on or after 6 April 2000.
(c) Subject to paragraphs (a) and (b), subsection (1) shall apply as on and from 6 April 2000.
(d) Notwithstanding the provisions of Part 30 of the Principal Act, a retirement benefits scheme which was approved by the Revenue Commissioners before 6 April 2000 shall not cease to be an approved scheme because the rules of the scheme are altered on or after that date to enable an individual to whom the scheme applies to exercise an option under subsection (3A) (as amended by this Act) of section 772 of the Principal Act, which that individual would be in a position to exercise in accordance with the terms of that subsection as regards a scheme approved on or after 6 April 2000 and, as regards such a scheme, the provisions of this section shall apply as if the scheme were one approved on or after that date.
1 O.J. No. L63, 13.3.1979, p.1