Having led the #StartupIreland pre-budget submission (see here, here, here and here), I was extremely disappointed by Budget 2015. Not only did the government fail to introduce any of the low-cost high-impact measures we recommended, but it actually introduced further disincentives directly targeted at the self-employed.
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My Reaction to Budget 2015
Posted in Enterprise, Ireland
Reforming R&D Tax Credits
In this fourth (and final) post in my series covering the budget recommendations that I coordinated at StartupIreland, I’m talking about our recommendations for the R&D tax credits. Startup companies are R&D wunderkind, but they are avoiding this tax break due to the cost and uncertainty of accessing it. This means that scaled up tech companies (e.g., international IDA clients) are benefiting from this tax break, whereas younger home-grown tech companies (Enterprise Ireland clients) are not. We should level this playing field.
Posted in Enterprise, Ireland
Employee Ownership Schemes in Ireland
In this third post in my series covering the budget recommendations that I coordinated at StartupIreland, I’m republishing our rundown on the current problems encountered by Irish startups that want to give their employees a stake in the success of the company.
Posted in Enterprise, Ireland
Looking to the UK – Entrepreneurial Incentives
In this second post in my series covering the budget recommendations that I coordinated at StartupIreland, I cover our recommendations to reform Ireland’s myriad of incentive schemes into a single coherent policy modelled after the United Kingdom’s successful SEIS scheme. In addition we recommend the introduction of UK-style Entrepreneur’s Relief on Capital Gains Tax.
Posted in Enterprise, Ireland
Equal Income Tax for Entrepreneurs
I was honoured to lead the pre-budget submission project for #StartupIreland. Our goal this year was to identify a number of “low-hanging fruit” budget measures that could reduce the friction felt by entrepreneurs as they try to get their businesses on a stable footing in Ireland. I’m re-publishing our recommendations here in serial form, so that there’s an easy version for people to read and share without having to download the entire 20 page submission.
Our first recommendations are that entrepreneurs should not have higher income taxes and fewer social entitlements than their staff.
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Posted in Enterprise, Ireland