PART XII

Special Provisions as to Pensions, Pension Schemes, Retirement Annuities and Purchased Life Annuities

Chapter I

Superannuation

222. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this section and to any regulations made thereunder, exemption from income tax shall be allowed in respect of income derived from investments or deposits of a superannuation fund, and, subject as aforesaid, any sum paid by an employer or employed person by way of contribution towards a superannuation fund shall, in computing profits or gains for the purpose of an assessment to income tax under Case I or Case II of Schedule D or under Schedule E, be allowed to be deducted as an expense incurred in the year in which the sum is paid:

Provided that no allowance shall be made under the foregoing provision in respect of any contribution by an employed person which is not an ordinary annual contribution, and, where a contribution by an employer is not an ordinary annual contribution, it shall, for the purpose of the foregoing provision, be treated as the Commissioners may direct, either as an expense incurred in the year in which the sum is paid or as an expense to be spread over such period of years as the Commissioners think proper.

(2) Income tax chargeable in respect of an annuity paid out of a superannuation fund to a person residing in the State shall, if the Commissioners so direct, be assessed and charged on the annuitant under Schedule E instead of being deducted and accounted for under section 434 and tax shall be computed on the full amount of the annuity arising in the year of assessment.

(3) For the purposes of this section, “superannuation fund” means, unless the context otherwise requires, a fund which is approved for those purposes, by the Commissioners, and, subject as hereinafter provided, the Commissioners shall not approve any fund unless it is shown to their satisfaction that—

(a) the fund is a fund bona fide established under irrevocable trusts in connection with some trade or undertaking carried on in the State by a person residing therein;

(b) the fund has for its sole purpose the provision of annuities for all or any of the following persons in the events respectively specified, that is to say, for persons employed in the trade or undertaking, either on retirement at a specified age, or on becoming incapacitated at some earlier age, or for the widows, children, or dependants of persons who are or have been so employed, on the death of those persons;

(c) the employer in the trade or undertaking is a contributor to the fund;

(d) the fund is recognised by the employer and employed persons in the trade or undertaking:

Provided that the Commissioners may, if they think fit, and subject to such conditions, if any, as they think proper to attach to the approval, approve a fund, or any part of a fund, as a superannuation fund for the purposes of this section—

(i) notwithstanding that the rules of the fund provide for the return in certain contingencies of contributions paid to the fund; or

(ii) if the main purpose of the fund is the provision of such annuities as aforesaid, notwithstanding that such provision is not its sole purpose; or

(iii) notwithstanding that the trade or undertaking in connection with which the fund is established is carried on only partly in the State and by a person not residing therein.

(4) The Commissioners may make regulations generally for the purpose of carrying this section into effect and, in particular, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, may by such regulations—

(a) provide for the charging of and accounting for tax in respect of contributions (including interest) repaid to a contributor to a superannuation fund and on lump sums paid in commutation of or in lieu of annuities payable out of a superannuation fund as if any sums so repaid or paid were income of the year in which they are repaid or paid;

(b) require the trustees or other persons having the management of a superannuation fund, or an employer whose employees contribute to a superannuation fund to deliver to the Commissioners such information and particulars as the Commissioners may reasonably require for the purposes of this section;

(c) prescribe the manner in which claims for relief under this section are to be made and approved, and in which applications for the approval of a superannuation fund are to be made;

(d) provide for the withdrawal of approval in the case of a fund which ceases to satisfy the requirements of this section;

(e) provide for determining what contributions to a superannuation fund are to be treated as ordinary annual contributions for the purposes of this section.

(5) In this section “the Commissioners” means the Revenue Commissioners.

223. —(1) Where, in pursuance of any public statute, superannuation allowances or gratuities are payable to individuals holding an office or employment on their retirement or to their legal personal representatives on their death, and such individuals are by any such statute required to make contributions towards the expenses of providing the allowances and gratuities, the sums so contributed by any such individual for any year may be deducted from the amount of his emoluments to be assessed to income tax for that year:

Provided that, where any such sums are to be repaid to any individual under the authority of any such statute, the person by or through whom the sums are to be repaid shall deduct from those sums an amount equal to the total amount of the income tax which would have been paid in respect of those sums if they had not been allowed as deductions under the authority of this section, and if those sums are repaid with any interest thereon, shall also deduct therefrom an amount equal to the total amount of the income tax which would have been paid in respect of that interest if it had actually been paid to the individual in the several years in respect of which it is paid, and the provisions of section 434 (2) (3) (4) (5) shall apply in regard to the accounting for and recovery of the amounts so deducted.

(2) Any person having the custody of the books containing the assessments to income tax on any individual for the several years in respect of which sums are repayable to him as aforesaid shall, notwithstanding anything contained in any declaration made by that person in pursuance of section 163, on application by the person by or through whom the sums are repayable, furnish to him such particulars as may be necessary to enable him to compute the appropriate amount of income tax to be deducted and paid over by him as aforesaid.

224. —(1) In this section “the Acts” means the Social Welfare Acts, 1952 to 1963, and any subsequent enactment together with which those Acts may be cited.

(2) The benefits to which this section applies are widow's (contributory) pension, orphan's (contributory) allowance and old age (contributory) pension payable under the Acts.

(3) So much of any contribution paid under the Acts by a person as an employed contributor or a voluntary contributor as is paid in respect of a benefit to which this section applies shall be deducted from or set off against the income of that person for the year of assessment in which the contribution is paid, and tax shall, where necessary, be discharged or repaid accordingly, and the total income of that person for that year of assessment shall be calculated accordingly for all the purposes of this Act, and no relief or deduction shall be given or allowed under any other provision of this Act in respect of any contribution in respect of which relief can be given under this subsection:

Provided that—

(a) the amount to be deducted or set off shall be treated as reducing primarily earned income;

(b) where the total amount to be deducted from or set off against the income of a married person whose wife is living with him or who is living with her husband exceeds the total income of that person, the excess shall be deemed to be an amount which, under the foregoing provisions of this subsection, may be deducted from or set off against the income of the wife or husband of that person;

(c) no deduction or set-off shall be allowed in respect of so much of any contribution paid by a person whose entry into insurance for the purpose of old age (contributory) pension occurred after he had attained the age of sixty as was paid in respect of old age (contributory) pension.

(4) Payments of benefits to which this section applies shall be deemed to be emoluments to which Chapter IV of Part V applies.

(5) A person who, by virtue of any provision of the Acts, suffers a deduction from his remuneration in respect of any contribution shall be deemed, for the purposes of this section (but no other purpose), to have paid a contribution equal to the amount of the deduction.

(6) For the purposes of this section, the part of any contribution which is paid in respect of any or all of the benefits to which this section applies shall be taken to be such part thereof as may be determined by the Minister for Social Welfare.

225. —Where a person has ceased to hold an office or employment and a pension, annuity, or other annual payment is paid to him or to his widow or his child or any of his relatives or dependants by the person or the heirs, executors, administrators, or successors of the person under whom he held such office or by whom he was so employed, then such pension, annuity, or other annual payment shall, notwithstanding that it is paid voluntarily or is capable of being discontinued, be deemed to be income for the purpose of assessment of income tax and shall be assessed and charged under Schedule D or under Schedule E as the case may require.