Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 section 508I

Designated investment funds

Section 508I empowers Revenue to designate (and withdraw designation from) an investment fund for the purposes of the Employment Investment Incentive scheme, and sets out the conditions a fund must satisfy to qualify for designation.

• Revenue may designate an investment fund as a "designated fund" having regard to the circumstances of the case, after consulting with persons they consider helpful, and subject to any conditions they see fit to attach.
• Revenue may withdraw a fund's designation by written notice to the fund managers; upon withdrawal, the fund ceases to be designated for any subscriptions made after the date of the notice, and the withdrawal must be published in Iris Oifigiúil.
• A fund may only be designated if it is established under irrevocable trusts for the sole purpose of investing in qualifying companies, and if the trust terms satisfy a series of requirements covering investment timing, safekeeping of funds, distribution of income, capping of charges, annual audited accounts, independence of managers and trustees, and treatment of share discounts and surplus subscriptions.
• No participant may have shares in any investee company transferred into his or her own name until four years have elapsed from the date the shares were issued to the fund.