Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) welcomes the various measures in today’s Budget in support of the housing market and the SME sector.
In particular BPFI welcomes the following measures which we had advocated for in our pre-Budget submission:
Extension of the Help to Buy Scheme in its current form for two years to end-2021
- BPFI’s analysis in June showed that between 84% and 92% of all First Time Buyers buying a new property utilised the Scheme during the period 2018-2019
Improvements in a range of SME support measures:
- Key Employee Engagement Programme (KEEP) – amendments to facilitate employees to work across other companies in a group structure and to reduce the minimum working time requirement to better facilitate part-time workers.
- Employment and Investment Incentive (EII) scheme – increase in the annual investment limit from €150,000 to €250,000 and full tax relief on investments to be allowable in the year of investment. R&D Tax Credit – increase in the credit from 25% to 30% of qualifying expenditure for micro and small businesses. It is also good news that the allowance for R&D being outsourced to third-level institutions is being increased from 5% of expenditure to 15%. Also the measure to allow them to claim for qualifying pre-trading expenses is a very positive step.
- Capital Gains Tax Entrepreneur Relief – commitment to a review
BPFI Chief Executive, Brian Hayes, stated:
“Notwithstanding the increase in housing supply and growth in the provision of mortgage market, the extension of the Help to Buy Scheme for First Time Buyers will provide all-important certainty in the housing market. The same can be said in respect of the SME market supports announced as small and medium-sized businesses in particular face considerable uncertainty around Brexit.”
Note: Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) represents the banking, payments and fintech sector in Ireland. Together with its affiliates, the Federation of International Banks in Ireland and the Fintech & Payments Association of Ireland, BPFI has 100 member institutions and associates, including licensed domestic and foreign banks and institutions operating in the financial marketplace here.
Contact: For further information contact Jillian Heffernan, Head of Communications, jillian.heffernan@bpfi.ie 087 9016880
