Insights

At Grant Thornton, we’re not your run of the mill Audit, Tax and Advisory firm. Why? Because we always go beyond the norm, challenge convention and deliver creative solutions. We’re also always looking for changemakers.

Under the fitness and probity (‘F&P’) regime the Central Bank of Ireland (the ‘Central Bank’) assesses the suitability (the fitness and probity) of individuals put forward for a number of senior roles in regulated firms (referred to as pre-approval controlled functions or ‘PCFs’).

A foreign employment tax obligation can arise from as little as an employee spending one day working in a foreign country. Such obligations should be considered from a very early stage given the high personal tax rates that apply across Europe and associated penalties for companies who fail to register for and operate payroll withholding taxes.

In recent years, there has been a global movement towards increased tax transparency, particularly following a number of high profile financial crises and scandals. Coupled with the growth in the digital economy as well as crypto-assets and e-money in particular, the European Union (EU) has proposed a new Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC) known as “DAC8”.

In recent years Ireland has become an epicentre for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for a number of reasons including connected world class research, pro-enterprise policy and an attractive tax regime.

Significant changes to the dynamic of the financial services sector in recent years have shifted the paradigms in how we work. The increased digitisation of the workforce, changes in business models, globalisation, and remote working capabilities have led to a new approach to the delivery of services.

The Central Bank of Ireland (‘CBI’) has recently issued its latest Anti-Money Laundering Bulletin, focussing on the Virtual Asset Service Provider (‘VASP’) sector. In this bulletin, the CBI has provided its observations on a number of significant and widespread deficiencies across authorisation applications received from VASPs where roughly 90% of all applications are not meeting the required standard.

In line with the EU’s ‘Financing Sustainable Growth’ Action Plan 2018, the European Commission adopted a number of delegated acts which will impact (re)insurance undertakings and insurance distributors. These changes will apply from 2 August 2022.

The Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021 (the “Act”) has now been commenced. The orders for the commencement of the Act and the establishment of the Corporate Enforcement Authority were signed by the Tánaiste on 5 and 6 July 2022 respectively. The Act was previously passed by the Oireachtas and signed into law by the President on 22 December 2021.

The Central Bank published the Cross Industry Guidance on Operational Resilience in December 2021 expecting firms to be in a position to evidence compliance within two years. It has now issued an Operational Resilience Maturity Assessment to firms in all sectors to assess the level of preparedness in the financial services industry.

This is the first article from Grant Thornton in our series on the Central Bank of Ireland (Central Bank)’s recovery plan Requirements. This introductory article provides an overview of the key requirements of the legislation, the timelines involved and main topics included in your recovery plan.

SARP was first introduced in 2012 to encourage the relocation/assignment of key employees to Ireland. Where certain conditions are satisfied, 30% of taxable employment income over €75,000 will be disregarded for income tax purposes. Income which is disregarded for income tax purposes is not exempt from the Universal Social Charge (USC) or PRSI.