Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 section 490

Qualifying companies

Section 490 sets out the criteria a company must satisfy to be a qualifying company for the purposes of raising Employment and Investment Incentive (EII), Start-Up Capital Incentive (SCI) and Start-Up Relief for Entrepreneur (SURE) funding.

• The company must be incorporated in the State, another EEA state or the UK, hold a tax clearance certificate, and exist wholly for the purpose of carrying on relevant trading activities or being a holding company (or both). The RICT group must be an SME, not be an undertaking in difficulty, and each company in the group must be unlisted with no arrangements to become listed.
• Throughout the relevant period, the company must be tax resident in the State (or in another EEA state or the UK while carrying on relevant trading activities from a fixed place of business in the State), and all issued shares of companies in the RICT group must be fully paid up.
• The company must not control any company other than a qualifying subsidiary, and must not itself be under the control of another company, unless that control is exercised by NAMA or a company referred to in section 616(1)(g).
• If the company is wound up or dissolved before the end of the relevant period, it will cease to be a qualifying company unless the winding up is for genuine commercial reasons (not tax avoidance) and net assets are distributed to members before the end of the relevant period or within three years of commencement of the winding up, whichever is later.