Finance Act 2012

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Farm taxation.

20.— The Principal Act is amended—

(a) by inserting the following after section 664:

“Relief for increase in carbon tax on farm diesel.

664A.— (1) In this section—

‘accounting period’, in relation to a person, means—

(a) where the person is a company, an accounting period determined in accordance with section 27, or

(b) where the person is not a company, a period of one year ending on the date to which the accounts of the person are usually made up,

but, where accounts have not been made up or where accounts have been made up for a greater or lesser period than one year, the accounting period shall be such period not exceeding one year as the Revenue Commissioners may determine;

‘carbon tax’ means the carbon charge referred to in section 96(1A) (inserted by section 64 (1)(f) of the Finance Act 2010 ) of the Finance Act 1999 ;

‘farm diesel’ means the mineral oil described as ‘other heavy oil’ in Schedule 2A to the Finance Act 1999 used by a person in the carrying on of a trade of farming, but does not include such oil used for the purpose of home heating;

‘relevant carbon tax’ means an amount equivalent to the amount determined by the formula—

A - B

where—

A is the amount of the carbon tax included in a deduction in respect of farm diesel in the computation by a person of the amount of the profits or gains of that person to be charged to tax under Case I of Schedule D, and

B is the amount of the carbon tax that would have been included in that deduction if the amount of the carbon tax had been calculated at the rate of €41.30 per 1,000 litres of farm diesel.

(2) Where—

(a) a person carries on in an accounting period a trade of farming in respect of which the person is within the charge to tax under Case I of Schedule D, and

(b) in the computation of the amount of the profits or gains of that trade the person is, apart from this section, entitled to any deduction on account of farm diesel,

then such person shall be entitled in that computation to a further deduction for farm diesel of an amount equal to the relevant carbon tax.”,

(b) in paragraph 1(k) of the Table to section 667B by substituting “Horsemanship;” for “Horsemanship.”,

(c) in paragraph 1 of the Table to section 667B by inserting the following after subparagraph (k):

“(l) Level 6 Specific Purpose Certificate in Farm Administration.”,

and

(d) by inserting the following after section 667B:

“Special provisions for registered farm partnerships.

667C.— (1) In this section—

‘qualifying farmer’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 667B;

‘registered farm partnership’ means a milk production partnership within the meaning of the European Communities (Milk Quota) Regulations 2008 ( S.I. No. 227 of 2008 ).

(2) Subject to subsection (3), where a person is a partner in a registered farm partnership, section 666 shall apply as if in that section—

(a) in subsection (1) ‘50 per cent’ were substituted for ‘25 per cent’, and

(b) the following was substituted for subsection (4)—

‘(4) (a) A deduction shall not be allowed under this section in computing a company’s trading income for any accounting period which ends after 31 December 2015.

(b) Any deduction allowed by virtue of this section in computing the profits or gains of a trade of farming for an accounting period of a person other than a company shall not apply for any purpose of the Income Tax Acts for any year of assessment later than the year 2015.’.

(3) Where a person referred to in subsection (2) is a qualifying farmer, section 667B shall apply for the purposes of this section as if in subsection (5)(a) of that section ‘50 per cent’ were substituted for ‘25 per cent’.

(4) This section shall not apply for any accounting period which ends before 1 January 2012 or ends after 31 December 2015.

(5) This section comes into operation on such day as the Minister for Finance may appoint by order.”.