Start Your Own Business Relief

The relief from Income Tax for start up businesses is known as Start Your Own Business Relief or SYOB Relief for short.

The scheme will provide an exemption from Income Tax up to a maximum of €40,000 per annum for a period of two years to individuals who set up a qualifying business; having been unemployed for a period of at least 12 months prior to starting the business. Under current rules it runs from 25 October 2013 to 31 December 2016.

The main criteria under this scheme are:

• The business must be set up between 25 October 2013 and 31 December 2016 by a person that qualifies for the relief.
• The person setting up the business must have been unemployed for twelve months or more, and during that period be in receipt of any of the following:

• crediting contributions
• jobseeker's allowance
• jobseeker's benefit
• the one-parent family payment
• partial capacity payment

• It must be a new business and not a business that is bought, inherited or otherwise acquired.
• It must be unincorporated, that is, it must not be registered as a company.

This relief does not require pre-approval, instead you claim this relief by completing the relevant section of your annual Income Tax return form each year.

Date published 30 Sep 2016

This article is intended to inform rather than advise and is based on legislation and practice at the time. Taxpayer’s circumstances do vary and if you feel that the information provided is beneficial it is important that you contact us before implementation. If you take, or do not take action as a result of reading this article, before receiving our written endorsement, we will accept no responsibility for any financial loss incurred.