Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 section 508

Carry forward of unused relief

Section 508 allows an individual to carry forward unused employment investment incentive (EII) relief where the full amount cannot be offset in the year the qualifying investment is made.

• Where a qualifying investment exceeds the annual relief limit (€140,000 for investments qualifying under section 507 (SURE), or the limits in section 502(3) in other cases), or where total income is insufficient to absorb the available deduction, the unrelieved amount may be carried forward to subsequent years of assessment.
• Amounts carried forward are treated as though the individual had subscribed directly for eligible shares in the later year, and any balance still unrelieved at the end of a year may be carried forward again until fully used, but not to any year after the tax year 2026.
• In any year of assessment, carried-forward amounts must be relieved first, with amounts from an earlier year taking priority over amounts from a later year.
• Only after all carried-forward amounts have been dealt with is relief given for investments made in the current year, with relief under section 502(2)(b) given in priority to relief under section 502(2)(a).