Key Post Revenue issues Guidance notes on the tax treatment of ETFs

Brendan Burgess

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http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/exchange-traded-funds-guidance-note.pdf

It only applies to Exchange Traded Funds. It does not apply to other collective funds such as Investment Trusts.

Read the full document, but here are the key extracts.

3. ETFs domiciled in the US, EEA and other OECD countries

Revenue will accept that, in the case of investments made on or after 1
January 2014 in US ETFs, income payments (dividends) will be subject to income tax at the
standard or higher rate as appropriate, and gains on disposals will be subject to capital
gains tax. In other words, that such ETFs would not be regarded as having structures and
regulation that would be similar in all material respects to Irish ETFs, which would then take
them out of the tax regime applicable to offshore funds and instead bring them in to the
mainstream income tax and capital gains tax treatment that would apply to share
investments generally. And tax returns should be submitted, and appropriate tax payments
should be made, accordingly.

It should be noted that such amounts assessable as income will attract PRSI and USC.

1. Irish domiciled ETFs
The relevant legislation, therefore, places the onus on the investor to make a self-assessment tax return of the income and gains, including gains arising under the deemed disposal provisions, and to account for income tax at the rate of 41% on all such Irish-domiciled ETF related income and gains. This 41% rate is applicable to income (dividends) and gains on disposals arising on or after 1 January 2014.

Such income and gains do not attract Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) or Universal Social Charge (USC) liabilities.

2. ETFs domiciled in EU countries other than Ireland

The tax treatment of such investments mirrors the tax treatment applicable to Irish ETFs.
 
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This 41% rate is applicable to income (dividends) and gains on disposals arising on or after 1 January 2014.

What happens to income and gains before 1 January 2014? Or are they just saying that the from 1 Jan 2014, the rate was 41%. The same regime applies before that, it's just that the rate was different.
 
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I had a question that I was hoping somebody might be able to help me with... I am a nonprofessional, and am assisting two friends of mine with their finances. They are an elderly couple who recently returned to Ireland after several decades overseas. Their combined income is below the tax exemption limit for people aged over sixty-five, so they are not liable to pay DIRT tax on their savings. If they were to invest some of those savings in Irish domiciled ETFs, would they then be obliged to pay the special 41% tax on all returns (dividends and capital gains), or would they be exempt, as long as their total income including ETF distributions remained below the tax exemption limit? Thank you in advance for any guidance that you can offer.
 
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