Today, the Government published the Finance Bill. The Finance Bill puts the fiscal plans laid out in December’s budget on a legal footing.

The Department of Finance have prepared an almost-in-plain-English document detailing items listed in the Finance Bill.

Some of the items that caught my eye:

• Section 12: Rent a Room

A tightening of the legislation on tax relief on renting rooms where businesses paying an office-holder or employee’s residence cannot be claimed.

• Section 35: Islamic Finance

This section aims to configure Irish finance  leglisation (tax, really) so that it can comply with Shari’a law and Islamic fiscal norms. The transations covered in the Finance Bill include credit, deposit, investment and Stamp Duty transations.

• Section 41: Tax Relief for Startups

New startups founded in 2010 will be covered by an extension to the tax exemption on income and gains for the first three years of operation.

• Section 108, 111, 112 & 123: VAT on Public Bodies

Due to a European Court of Justice ruling, all public bodies that provide services in a marketplace where private operators do business must charge VAT on that service. The European Commission took the case against Ireland off the back of a complaint by a private car park owner.

The addition of VAT on services will apply right across the public services right down to local authorities providing services like waste collection, landfill, parking, leisure facilities (e.g. swimming pools), toll roads, rent from certain properties and supply of staff or information.

brian lenihan, budget, dept of finance, finance bill