Family partnerships have become a tax efficient estate planning structure that allows parents to gift assets to their children while still retaining control, through their function as managing partner, of the investment of those assets.
The transfer of assets to the partnership is subject to tax for both the parents (Capital Gains Tax – CGT) and the children (Capital Acquisitions Tax – CAT). Stamp Duty also needs to be considered. However, the tax may be minimised, where assets of current low value, but with an expectation that they will grow over time, are transferred.
By transferring assets into the partnership, any future gains on those assets can be shared among family members. The ability to strategically distribute gains can lead to substantial tax advantages when considering the long-term growth of family assets. Family partnerships serve as an effective vehicle for succession planning, ensuring a smooth transition of assets and wealth to the next generation while potentially minimizing inheritance tax liabilities.
The partners are liable to tax on income/capital gains arising from the partnership. One of the most notable tax advantages offered in this structure is the ability to distribute income among family members in a tax-efficient manner. By strategically structuring the partnership, income can be allocated to family members who fall into lower tax brackets, effectively reducing the overall tax liability.
A partnership agreement should be prepared setting out the terms of the partnership, typically each partner’s contributed capital determines their partnership share. This is typically 90% for the children and 10% for the parents. The Agreement appoints a managing partner. By agreement between the partners, the managing partner decides on the investment strategy for the funds and the distribution policy of the partnership. By having one or both parents as managing partner, they retain control of the assets.
The partnership can be either a limited or general partnership. In a Limited Partnership, the liability for all bar at least one partner is limited to the amount they have contributed. Therefore their liability to debts is capped. A General Partnership is less administratively burdensome but all partners are liable for the debts of the partnership without limit.
Family partnerships are a useful vehicle for preserving wealth, optimising taxes, and ensuring a smooth transition of assets within a family unit.
Please contact us if you have any queries in relation to Family Partnerships.
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_2360980009-scaled.jpg14402560Alison Bourkehttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngAlison Bourke2024-04-18 09:09:072024-04-18 09:09:07Family Partnerships – Tax Efficient Estate Planning Structure for the Benefit of Family Members
Retirement Relief provides relief from CGT on the disposal of trading assets or shares in trading companies. To qualify for this relief, the main conditions are that the individual must be aged 55 or over and must be disposing of or transferring qualifying business assets. In addition, the individual must have been a working director of the company for 10 years and a fulltime working director for at least 5 of the years prior to the transfer.
The latter condition can be a stumbling block for many individuals seeking to claim this relief. For example, an individual may be a director of more than one company and therefore may not meet the full-time working director requirement.
The Finance Bill 2023 introduced changes on the restrictions that apply on retirement relief. These changes will come into effect from 1 January 2025.
Disposals to Children
At present, if the individual disposing of the qualifying assets is aged between 55 and 65 years of age and the disposal is to a child, full relief may be claimed. From 66 onwards the relief is restricted to €3 million. The changes will now restrict relief available for individuals between 55 and 69 to €10 million. From 70 onwards the relief will be restricted to €3 million.
Disposals to Persons other than a Child
Under the current rules, there is full relief on disposals of qualifying assets up to a value of €750,000 where the disposal is made between ages of 55 and 65. From 66 onwards the cap is reduced to €500,000. The new rules will extend the €750,000 relief up to the age of 69. Similarly the €500,000 cap will be from the age 70 and onwards.
The table below summarises the new rules:
Disposal to:
Current Rules:
Changes – effective 1 January 2025:
Child
Unrestricted relief up to 65 years
From 66 years onwards relief restricted to €3m
Up to 69 years relief restricted to €10m
From 70 years onwards relief restricted to €3m
Person other than a child
Full relief on disposal of qualifying assets of up to €750k up to the age of 65
From 66 years onwards the cap is reduced to €500k
€750k is extended to 69 years
From 70 years onwards cap is reduced to €500k
Please contact us if you have any queries in relation to the changes to CGT Retirement Relief for Individuals.
The shift of share options from the Irish self-assessment system to PAYE withholding from 1 January 2024 is a significant change arising from Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023. Prior to this, employees were required to report and remit taxes within 30 days of exercising an option on Form RTSO1. Additionally, they were required to file an income tax return for the relevant year.
The changes set out in the Finance Bill outline that under the new system, employers are now required to report and make withholdings under the PAYE system on any gains arising after 1 January 2024 on the exercise, assignment or release of share options by employees.
What do employees need to be aware of?
The self-assessment regime continues to apply to gains arising on or before 31 December 2023, as does the obligation to register for Relevant Tax on Share Options (RTSO).
Share option gains is an area of focus for Revenue, therefore employees should ensure that their tax filings (Form RTSO1 and Income Tax returns) and payments in relation to relevant tax on share option exercises are up to date.
Failure to submit an income tax return in any year will result in a surcharge being applied by Irish Revenue. The surcharge is as follows:
5% of the tax due up to a maximum of €12,695 where the income tax return is made within 2 months of the return filing date, or
10% of the tax due up to a maximum of €63,485 where the return is made more than 2 months after the return filing date.
How can Crowleys DFK help?
Our tax team can support employees with preparing and filing income tax returns and RTSO1 returns in respect of share options exercised. Please contact us for assistance.
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_243149086-scaled.jpg17142560Alison Bourkehttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngAlison Bourke2024-02-19 10:54:262024-02-19 10:54:26Share Options: New PAYE Withholding Requirements from 1 January 2024 – How does this Impact Employees?
Individuals who file income tax returns and companies who file corporation tax returns have an obligation to pay preliminary tax:
1. Individuals
Preliminary tax is your estimate of the Income Tax, PRSI and USC that you expect to pay for a tax year. You must pay this by 31 October of the tax year in question.
The amount of preliminary tax for a year must be equal to, or more than, the lowest amount of the following:
100% of the tax due for the immediately previous tax year
90% of the tax due for the current tax year
It is necessary that you make a sufficient preliminary tax payment based on the above rules, as we have seen Revenue impose interest on underpayments.
As income tax returns are filed a year in arrears, i.e. your 2023 tax return will be due in October 2024, it is important to note that if you do not make a preliminary tax payment for the year in question, interest at a rate of 0.0219% will be incurred from the date that the payment was due.
For example, your 2023 tax return is due for filing on 31 October 2024. Your preliminary tax payment would have been due for payment on 31 October 2023. If you did not make the payment on 31 October 2023, Revenue may impose interest from 31 October 2023 when you file your return in 2024.
2. Companies
Irish resident companies and non-resident companies must pay Corporation Tax on taxable profits if:
a resident company trades in Ireland
a non-resident company trades in Ireland through a branch or agency
from 1 January 2022, a non-resident company is in receipt of profits or gains in respect of rental property in Ireland.
The rules of when a company should make their preliminary tax payment depends on whether they are classified as a Small Company or Large Company.
Small Companies
A small company is a company whose CT liability is not above €200,000 in the previous accounting period.
Small companies can base their preliminary tax for an accounting period on:
100% of their CT liability for the previous accounting period
90% of their CT liability for the current period (and there is provision for a top up payment to be made).
This must be paid on the 23rd of the eleventh month after the accounting period ended. For example, if the company’s year end is 31 December 2024, preliminary tax is due by 23 November 2024.
Large Companies
Large companies can pay their preliminary CT in two instalments when their accounting period is longer than seven months. The first instalment is due on the 23rd of the sixth month of the accounting period. The amount due is either:
50% of the CT liability for the previous accounting period
45% of the CT liability for the current accounting period.
The second instalment is due on the 23rd of the eleventh month. This will bring the preliminary tax up to 90% of the final tax due for the current accounting period.
For example, if the company’s year end is 31 December 2024, and they are a large company, the first instalment of preliminary tax is due on the 23rd of June and the 2nd instalment is due on the 23rd of November.
If preliminary tax isn’t paid by the above dates, interest is due at a daily rate of 0.0219% on late payments or payments that are not made in full. The interest is calculated by multiplying together the:
amount of tax underpaid
number of days the tax is late
interest rate.
If you have any queries about your preliminary tax obligations, please contact us.
From January 1st 2024, changes have been made to the Public Spending Code (PSC) concerning infrastructural and large-scale capital projects. The new “Infrastructure Guidelines”, which have replaced the PSC requirements for capital expenditure as previously outlined in Public Spending Code: A Guide to Evaluating, Planning and Managing Public Investment, December 2019, apply to all Government departments, local authorities, the HSE, public bodies, and any other body in receipt of public funding. The new “Infrastructure Guidelines” describe a new project lifecycle, with a series of stages to be completed prior to implementing a project. Here we will cover the key areas you should be aware of, while our Expert Team is available to provide further explanation and assistance.
Key Players in the new Guidelines
Addressed mainly to stages in project lifecycle relating to evaluation, planning and management of public investment projects, the “Infrastructure Guidelines” create new responsibilities for key individuals involved in these areas. Three individuals or positions are of particular importance, these being the Accounting Officer (AO), the Approving Authority (AA), and the Sponsoring Agency (SA).
The AO’s responsibilities are considerable here. It falls to the AO to ensure that their Department/Office/Body and any other relevant agency under their remit are compliant with these guidelines. Additionally, the AO is responsible for managing the budgets of the individual projects and the capital budget for their area overall.
Ultimately the AO is responsible for the project and the “Infrastructure Guidelines” provide a wide range of specific responsibilities for the AO to fulfill, such as monitoring the project as it is implemented and Assessing the Final Business Case. Alongside the AO in fulfilling these responsibilities is the AA, referring to the Department funding the project. Both the AO and AA should be aware of the wide-ranging responsibilities set out in the “Infrastructure Guidelines”.
The SA may be a government department, local authority, state agency, higher education institute, cultural institution or other state body and its responsibilities lie in evaluating, planning and managing public investment projects. Again the “Infrastructure Guidelines” set out key tasks that must be fulfilled.
Stages in Project Lifecycle
The core of the new “Infrastructure Guidelines” relates to the new stages of the project lifecycle which have been established and which all projects must follow. The new guidelines focus on three preliminary stages in the lifecycle which occur prior to implementation, these being:
Strategic Assessment & Preliminary Business Case
Pre-tender – Project Design, Planning and Procurement Strategy
Post Tender – Final Business Case
It should be noted that the guidelines provide a simplified version of this process for projects with an estimated capital cost of less than €20m. For these projects, the following two approval stages must be fulfilled prior to implementation:
Preliminary Business Case
Post Tender – Final Business Case
The “Infrastructure Guidelines” emphasise that these stages are “incremental”. This means that a project is not locked in merely from having passed the first or second stage. Should a project at, for example, the third approval stage, be deemed to be no longer worthwhile for whatever reason, the project can be set down.
Extensive guidelines for following these phases have been made available by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Below are the key areas relevant parties should consider:
1. Strategic Assessment & Preliminary Business Case
This “Strategic Assessment” refers to the process of determining and defining the rationale for a project and ensuring that it is in line with government policy. This assessment should be submitted to the Approving Authority which will then, if acceptable, move the project to the Preliminary Business Case.
At this stage, the Sponsoring Agency must develop a Business Case which sets out, for instance, the investment rationale and objectives of the project. It should include a description of the short-list of potential options to deliver objectives set out, assessment of affordability within existing resources, assessment of delivery risk, and several other areas. The purpose of the Preliminary Business Case, then, is to provide the AO and AA with information regarding the viability and desirability of public spending proposals. It also creates a framework for assessing a project’s costs, benefits, affordability, deliverability, risks and sensitivities.
2. Pre-tender – Project Design, Planning and Procurement Strategy
The purpose of this stage is to develop the options set out in the Preliminary Business Case, with the end goal of developing a Detailed Business Case which will set out procurement strategy and project execution plan. This is a process of reviewing and confirming assumptions; approval from the AO and AA here moves a project to Tender. The critical issue to be considered in the Design and Planning Stage is ensuring that output requirements are given strong definition to avoid amendments later in the project.
3. Post Tender – Final Business Case
The development of the Final Business Case represents the final stage in the approval process for a project. Again the purpose here is to subject a project to critical scrutiny, using understanding developed relating to costs, benefits, risks, and delivery and applying this. The Final Business Case will be the document which will be used by the Approving Authority to determine whether a project is to progress to the award of contracts. It should be noted that this occurs after tendering. However, completion of the tendering process does not represent the award of a contract.
Major Projects
As noted above, for projects costing below €20 million, the above process has been simplified, requiring a Preliminary Business Case and a Final Business Case. For projects costing above €200 million, considered as “major projects” in the new guidelines, there are additional requirements in the project lifecycle.
Specifically, all “major projects” must, at the Preliminary Business Case stage, pass through an External Assurance Process. Furthermore, at this same stage, the Preliminary Business Case must be submitted to and reviewed by the Major Projects Advisory Group. Finally, Government consideration must be given to the project at both the Preliminary Business Case and Final Business Case stages.
Contributors
Vincent Teo Partner & Head of Public Sector & Government Services
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_590291639-scaled.jpg17072560Alison Bourkehttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngAlison Bourke2024-01-29 08:45:412024-02-06 09:33:38Infrastructure Guidelines – Outline of Changes to the Public Spending Code
From January 1st, new Central Government Accounting Standards (CGAS) will see significant reform of financial reporting for all Government Departments and Offices of Government. These new standards, being based on the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) generally favoured by the European Commission, aim to modernise financial reporting in Ireland along lines proposed by successive IMF and OECD reports.
The CGAS will change how public sector Vote accounts are to be prepared, requiring that financial statements also include information prepared on an accruals basis in the Statement of Financial Position. This article will run through the key changes imposed by the CGAS and explain the principles behind these.
Requirements
The CGAS coming into effect from January 1st are envisioned as a stage in a wider process of reform of financial reporting in Ireland. For the moment, the CGAS and their requirements apply to the following bodies:
All Departments and Offices of Government
The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission
The National Training Fund
The Social Insurance Fund
For these bodies, the CGAS imposes requirements as to how their Statements of Financial Position are presented. Specifically, they are now required to account for all of the following in their Statements:
For each of these areas, a relevant CGAS detailing the exact requirements has been prepared by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. In addition, each of the CGAS has been provided with a manual, or Central Government Accounting Manual (CGAM). These manuals provide guidance on how the CGAS should be implemented and are a support for Finance Officers working to bring their organisation into line with the CGAS.
Government documents relating to the CGAS have emphasised that all relevant bodies must ensure that the principle of materiality is observed in their financial reporting. As an accounting principle, materiality requires that financial statements include all information and items that relevant decision makers, such as investors, might consider to impact their activity. In other words, an organisation’s economic activity can be considered to be material if it might be of interest to any and all bodies which would view that organisation’s financial statements.
In principle, then, the CGAS are to replace a cash-based system of financial reporting with reporting carried out on an accruals basis. Under the CGAS, an organisation must record economic activity regardless of whether cash was exchanged or involved in that activity. For example, under the CGAS, contingent liabilities such as guarantees, where no cash exchange has yet occurred, have to be reported.
Transitions and Enforcement
As noted, the CGAS are being adopted as part of a modernisation of Irish financial reporting, with the aim of bringing Ireland into line with the majority of OECD and EU countries. Ultimately, this reform project will formalise accrual accounting financial reporting in Ireland. Given that this reform is to secure the international credibility of financial reporting in Ireland, Central Government guidance has emphasised the importance of compliance with the CGAS.
Where a relevant body is unable to comply fully with any of the CGAS, sanction for a temporary derogation should be secured from the Government Accounting Unit in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. This application should include a timeline for how the body will build its compliance with whatever elements of the CGAS it cannot currently meet. This sanction will have to be renewed on an annual basis; sanction received in 2024 will not apply in 2025, and so on. Where a Department or Office is non-compliant, this must be stated in their Statement of Accounting Policies and Principles in the Appropriation Accounts, as should whether any temporary derogation has been received.
It should be noted that as government reform of financial reporting is an ongoing project, future CGAS with new requirements are imminent. Continued monitoring of this area is recommended to ensure key reforms are not missed.
Contributors
Vincent Teo Partner & Head of Public Sector & Government Services
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_658318573-scaled.jpg17062560Alison Bourkehttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngAlison Bourke2024-01-09 16:15:482024-01-24 14:58:26Central Government Accounting Standards – What You Need to Know
The shift of share options from the Irish self-assessment system to PAYE withholding from 1 January 2024 is a significant change arising from Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023. Prior to this, employees were required to report and remit taxes within 30 days of exercising an option on Form RTSO1. Additionally, they were required to file an income tax return for the relevant year.
The changes set out in the Finance Bill outline that under the new system, employers are now required to report and make withholdings under the PAYE system on any gains arising after 1 January 2024 on the exercise, assignment or release of share options by employees.
While employees are certain to welcome this change, companies have been given a limited time frame to implement additional procedures to ensure they are compliant with the new obligations.
What should employers do to prepare for the upcoming change in employer reporting obligations?
It is advisable that employers communicate this change in the tax treatment to their employees. Companies should also update their share option plan documentation in light of this change.
Employers will need to review the share option plan documentation in the context of funding the liabilities. This is because employees will need to be able to fund the tax liability collected through the PAYE system. A number of shares (received from the exercise) may need to be sold under a ‘sell to cover mechanism’ to ensure the necessary funds are available. This is particularly important for companies that allow previous employees to exercise their share option after their employment has terminated.
Employers should also ensure accurate records are maintained on an ongoing basis for all share option grants. With regards to mobile employees, employers will also need to monitor both Irish and worldwide workdays during the grant to vest period. This is required to calculate the Irish taxes due on the date of the exercise of the options. Furthermore, a process must be in place to determine whether the gain is subject to PRSI or exempt.
Employers will need to ensure that the process for reporting the gains arising from the exercise of share options is completed within the required timeframe. Gains arising from the exercise of share options are regarded as notional payments. Therefore, they must be reported on or before the exercise of the option.
Employer Annual Share Reporting
Employers are still obliged to file an RSS1 return by 31 March following the calendar tax year to report the grant, exercise, assignment, or release of an option.
If you require assistance with the annual share reporting return for share options, please contact us.
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_684391012-scaled.jpg17072560Alison Bourkehttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngAlison Bourke2023-12-06 11:14:202024-02-19 10:59:42Share Options: New PAYE Withholding Requirements from 1 January 2024 – What does this mean for Employers?
Signed into law in December 2022, the Finance Act 2022 has changed the requirements governing the reporting of expenses to Revenue. Under a new system referred to as Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR), companies are now required to report any “reportable benefits” paid to employees and/or directors. These are benefits which are not currently subject to tax under the PAYE system and are the following:
The remote working daily allowance of €3.20
The payment of travel and subsistence expenses
The small benefit exemption
Anyone wishing to examine these changes themselves should consult Section 897C of the Finance Act. However, here we will provide an overview of these changes, the system for reporting these expenses, and advice on how to prepare. The new ERR regime is effective from 1 January 2024.
There are 3 options from which employers can choose to make ERR submissions:
Completion of an online form on ROS Online
Manually upload a file to ROS Online
Directly from their payroll or expense management system
What information does ERR require?
Compliance with the “reportable benefits” system involves sending on employee-related information such as the employee’s name, address, DOB, PPSN, staff number, and employment ID. Additionally, the payment date, value, and category are all be included. However, the three categories of expense all have slightly different requirements, which can be broken down as follows:
Travel & Subsistence: this covers payments an employer makes to an employee/director regarding travel or subsistence incurred by the employee, where no tax is deducted. When submitting a report to Revenue, the amount and date paid should be provided for each of the following categories:
Travel Vouched
Travel Unvouched
Subsistence Vouched
Subsistence Unvouched
Eating on site
Site based employees (includes “Country Money”)
Emergency Travel
Small Benefit: this covers any tax-free benefits that an employee/director may be provided by their employer. These can include vouchers but extends to many kinds of benefits. When making these payments, the employer should ensure the payment conforms to the standards set out in Section 112B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.
Notable conditions here are that the voucher or benefit cannot exceed €1000 in value and only two vouchers or benefits may be given in any one tax year (it should be noted that these conditions have also only been in effect as a result of the Finance Act 2022; previous limits were €500 in value and only one voucher per year).
Employers are required to report the following:
Date provided
Value
Remote working daily allowance: this covers any payment an employee/director may receive from their employer which relates to days the employee worked from home. These payments can come to no more than €3.20 per day. Employers are now expected to report:
Number of days
Amount paid
Date paid
How can we help?
Provide bespoke training to key stakeholders.
Review and analyse how your organisation currently collects information related to the reportable benefits.
Review your organisation’s policies to evaluate the different types of employee expenses your organisation currently makes and update the language used, where necessary, to bring your own records of these expenses in line with the ERR categories.
ERR Reporting on an outsourced basis (including reviewing databases, enriching file with the required data for ERR, preparing the final file to be converted to Revenue approved format and making ERR submissions to Revenue).
For further information, please contact Carol Hartnett, Manager in our Accounting & Financial Advisory Department.
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_2149128811-scaled.jpg17072560Alison Bourkehttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngAlison Bourke2023-09-25 08:12:502024-03-20 15:23:30Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR) – What You Need To Do
In March 2023, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issued updates to existing procurement guidelines This update, contained in Circular 05/2023, have made some significant changes to the thresholds for procurement and are intended to facilitate easier procurement for SMEs. To this end, there has been a loosening of procurement rules covering procurements of a value between €25,000 and €50,000. Below, we go through the most important changes to procurement regulations.
It should be noted that, at the time of publishing, the procurement guidelines PDF available on the Office of Government Procurement website has not been updated to take account of Circular 05/2023. However, Circular 05/2023 states that the new guidelines have come into effect immediately.
Changes to Procurement thresholds:
The updates have made changes to rules for procurement for goods and services and procurement for works. Under the previous guidelines relating to procurement for goods and services, there were three separate thresholds for procurement, each with a different set of requirements for a contracting authority. These thresholds were:
less than €5,000;
€5,000 – €25,000;
€25,000 – EU threshold.
After the Circular 05/2023 revisions, these thresholds for procurement for goods and services are now as follows:
less than €5,000;
€5,000 – €50,000;
€25,000 – EU threshold.
Guidelines for the €5,000 – €50,000 Procurement Threshold
The significant change here is clearly to the €5,000 – €50,000 threshold. What this means is that now procurement for goods and services for any amount within this range can be conducted according to the following guidelines:
Seek at least three written tenders from interested and competent suppliers/service providers
Evaluate offers against relevant requirements using a scoring sheet;
Select the most suitable offer and advise all tenderers regarding the decision.
Previously, procurements above €25,000 were required to be conducted through a more extensive and formalized process. This included using an Open Procedure and advertising the contract on the eTenders website. These requirements now apply to procurements above €50,000. In other words, one way of understanding these changes is to see that the methods previously required for conducting procurement of a value between €5,000 and €25,000, now apply to conducting procurement of a value between €5,000 and €50,000.
However, it should be noted that there are several exceptions to this rule. Crucially, while procurement contracts between €25,000 and €50,000 do not have to be advertised on eTenders, contract award information does have to be published for these contracts. Upon award of the contract, you are still required to publish the contract information on eTenders, even if you are no longer required to advertise the contract on eTenders. Additionally, while there is no requirement to advertise on eTenders, the Circular still encourages contracting authorities to do so if they wish.
A further exception to the updates worth noting is that it remains the case that where Government Departments and Offices have agreed contracts above €25,000 without a competitive process, this should be reported to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Works Thresholds and Other Issues in Circular 05/2023:
Similar to the goods and services changes, the thresholds related to works contracts have also been adjusted. Now, for works contracts of a value less than €200,000, it is sufficient to seek at least five written tenders from interested and competent contractors. As with procurement for goods and services, this represents a raising of the threshold.
However, the Circular is explicit in adding that “the threshold at which contracting authorities are required to advertise all contracts for works-related services remains at €50,000”. A typical example of this sort of service might be consultancy; for this sort of procurement, the threshold remains unchanged.
Finally, Circular 05/2023 does contain an extensive range of advice regarding how to go about conducting procurement. While this advice is not binding, it may be useful to for conducting procurement and includes recommendations such as:
Undertake preliminary market consultations prior to tendering
Subdivide contract into lots
Sue Prior Information Notices to facilitate SMEs forming a consortium prior to tendering
Use the “open procedure” for tendering where possible
Ensure selection criteria set for tenderers are relevant and proportionate to the contract
Ensure any turnover/financial capacity requirement is proportionate to the risk involved
Indicate in tender documents where reasonable variants to the specifications are acceptable.
Use a Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) for the procurement of commonly used goods, works or services which are generally available on the market.
Contributors
Vincent Teo Partner & Head of Public Sector & Government Services
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_1962551326-scaled.jpg17022560eibhlinhttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngeibhlin2023-08-03 07:28:012023-08-03 10:28:24New Procurement Threshold to Significantly Increase Public Sector Accessibility to Goods and Services
In May of this year, the Government approved the updated 2023 Public Sector Climate Action Mandate (PSCAM). The Mandate, first introduced as part of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2021, sets out the goals Public Sector Bodies must achieve as part of the government’s overall strategy for reducing emissions. The newly updated Mandate is an expansion of the 2022 Mandate. New actions have been added and existing actions have been expanded. This article will talk through the updated Mandate, explain its purpose and describe the new requirements it presents.
What is the Mandate?
The CAP’s overall aim is to achieve a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland by 2030. While the CAP acknowledges that the public sector is not the major driver of emissions, the Mandate has been introduced to facilitate the public sector in taking a leading role in reducing emissions. The Mandate must be followed for those bodies it applies to, but it should be noted that it does not apply to every public sector body. Local Authorities, Commercial Semi-State Agencies and Schools are all exempt from the Mandate. Size is also a consideration when adhering to the Mandate. The Mandate places greater responsibilities on government departments and also on organisations that consume over 50 GWh of energy per annum than it does on smaller bodies, which can fulfil the Mandate’s minimum requirements.
Status of the 2022 Mandate
For those public bodies the Mandate does apply to, many of the requirements found in the updated Mandate are unchanged from previous years. For instance, the requirement to establish and support Green Teams has not been altered. Furthermore, nothing has been removed from the Mandate. This means that any work completed to fulfil the previous Mandate remains valid. Any organisation still working on fulfilling the previous Mandate can continue to use the guides made available by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. We anticipate that updated guidelines will be made available for the new Mandate, however, no timeline for this is available so far.
Changes from the 2022 Mandate
For those who are subject to the Mandate, the following are the major changes to be aware of:
A new requirement has been added stating that senior management complete a climate action leadership training course in 2023.
The requirement that sustainability and emissions be addressed in the annual report has been amended. The annual report must now also address: a) efforts to implement the Mandate; b) compliance with Circular 1/2020 related to air travel emissions.
The requirement to review use of paper has been amended to include the need to eliminate paper-based processes and, where this is not possible, to use recycled paper as the default.
The requirement to achieve formal environmental certification has been amended with distinct requirements for organisations spending more or less than €2m per annum on energy.
A requirement to implement Green Public Procurement (GPP) has been added. This should be performed in line with the EPA Green Public Procurement Guidance.
The requirement to create bicycle friendly buildings has been amended to indicate that the priority should be to facilitate moving away from individual car use.
A new requirement to phase out the use of parking in buildings, without compromising on supports for those with physical mobility issues, has been added.
New recommendations for retrofitting large building have been added.
The requirement to procure zero-emission vehicles only has been amended to include a requirement that any procurement contracts a public sector body enters into should use zero emissions vehicles whenever possible.
Contributors
Vincent Teo Partner & Head of Public Sector & Government Services
https://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_2235932383-scaled.jpg14402560Alison Bourkehttps://www.crowleysdfk.ie/wp-content/uploads/crowleysdf-chartered-accountants-1.pngAlison Bourke2023-06-06 07:45:222024-01-24 14:59:17Public Sector Climate Action Mandate 2023 – What you need to know
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The shift of share options from the Irish self-assessment system to PAYE withholding from 1 January 2024 is a significant change arising from Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023. Prior to this, employees were required to report and remit taxes within 30 days of exercising an option on Form RTSO1. Additionally, they were required to file an income tax return for the relevant year.
