Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 section 739M

Anti-avoidance: multiple funds

Section 739M defines a personal portfolio Irish real estate fund (PPIREF) and sets out the circumstances in which an IREF will be treated as a PPIREF of a particular unit holder.

• An IREF is a PPIREF of a unit holder where the unit holder, or persons connected with or acting on behalf of the unit holder, can select or influence the IREF's assets or business.
• The IREF terms are treated as permitting selection where the unit holder can exercise an option to select assets, the IREF can offer the unit holder the right to select, or the unit holder can request a change in terms to allow selection; or where the unit holder or a connected person can require the appointment of an investment adviser.
• Persons acting in a fiduciary capacity (such as employees of the fund manager or directors of the IREF) will not cause the IREF to be a PPIREF merely because of duties performed in that capacity on behalf of all unit holders equally.
• A pension scheme, investment undertaking or life assurance company that is a unit holder in a PPIREF may lose its status as a specified person, with the result that withholding tax applies to distributions made to it; a similar consequence arises where the pension scheme's own unit holders can influence its investment in the IREF as part of a tax avoidance arrangement.