(c) www.gov.ie – 30th September  2020

The Stay and Spend Scheme comes into effect today, 1st October 2020

  • Accommodation and food business can continue to register with the Revenue Commissioners to participate
  • €125 in income tax credits available to tax-payers who spend up to €625 in the hospitality sector from 1st October to 30 April 2021
  • Citizens encouraged to avail of the scheme to support the hospitality sector in parts of the country at lower levels of the Government’s plan for living with COVID-19
  • Government will monitor the scheme and examine how it can be altered if needed

Tax-payers can, from today, upload their receipts for qualifying expenditure to the Revenue Receipts Tracker mobile app, to avail of the tax relief. The scheme will provide a maximum of €125 in income tax credits to tax-payers who spend up to €625 in restaurants, pubs, hotels, B&Bs and other qualifying businesses, from Autumn 2020 through to Spring 2021, including over the Christmas period.

 

Summary of Stay and Spend Scheme

At the level of individual taxpayer:

• relief on accommodation and food, including soft drinks, but not including alcohol

• in the case of food, consumption on the premises is required

• a minimum spend of €25 per person per time/ Maximum spend limit of €625 (VAT inclusive) over life of scheme

• refund of 20% of the vouched cost through income tax i.e. maximum tax credit of €125 per person. (For married couples who are jointly assessed, the maximum spend over the life of the scheme will €1,250)

• where an individual or jointly assessed tax-payer has insufficient income tax liability to fully benefit from the measure, they may still avail of the relief against their USC contributions

• operated through downloadable easy-to-use Revenue mobile phone app

 

At the level of the business:

• VAT registered provider with current tax clearance

 

Duration

• scheme will run from 1 October 2020 – 30 April 2021, including over the Christmas period. The expiry date may be altered by order made by the Minister for Finance

 

Purpose of the scheme

• The purpose of the scheme is to incentivise taxpayers to support registered/accredited providers of accommodation and/or food during the off-season, thus providing support to a particularly vulnerable sector.

 

Qualification criteria

Businesses: In order to qualify for participation in the scheme, businesses will need to:

• be registered for VAT

• have a current tax clearance certificate

• be accredited/registered with relevant official bodies as appropriate (Fáilte Ireland and the HSE Environmental Health Service)

• register with Revenue to participate

• display appropriate signage indicating participation in the scheme

Individual taxpayers: To benefit from the scheme, an individual will need to:

• register for the scheme by downloading the app and provide his/her name and PPS Number in the course of using the app

• have an income tax or USC liability against which the tax credit can be set

 

Operation of the scheme

An individual taxpayer must spend a minimum of €25 each time on qualifying expenditure (accommodation, food and non-alcoholic drinks) as verified by a receipt from the relevant establishment. The taxpayer will submit the receipt by taking a photograph of same using a mobile phone and submitting same to Revenue using the mobile app. The taxpayer may continue to submit receipts until the cap on expenditure of €625 is reached. Revenue will provide an income tax credit of up to €125 (€625 @20%) per taxpayer (up to €250 in the case of a married couple, jointly assessed) in end of year balancing statement. The taxpayer will get the benefit of the credit in the year after the expenditure is incurred.