Only eight employees availed of tax relief programme

Only eight employees in the entire country availed of the controversial Special Assignee Relief Programme introduced in the 2012 budget, which created five jobs at a total cost to the State of €63,000.

When the Department of Finance was drafting this tax relief programme, the expectation was that 100 people would avail of the programme at a total cost to the State of €5m.

The special assignee relief programme was originally introduced to make it easier for companies to attract top executives to live in Ireland. Measures included an exemption from income tax on a salary between €75,000 and €500,000 for a maximum of up to five years. Moreover, a company was allowed to pay school fees up to €5,000 free of benefit-in-kind taxation for the children of these executives.