A new farm safety scheme, officially known as the Acceleration of Wear and Tear Allowances for Farm Safety Equipment Scheme, has opened for applications.

The scheme allows for accelerated capital allowances on qualifying farm safety and adaptation equipment.

The current taxation system in place for general agricultural equipment allows for capital allowances at a rate of 12.5% per annum, with items depreciated over eight years.

Purpose

The new scheme will allow for accelerated capital allowances of 50% per annum over two years for the equipment outlined in Table 1 and which is listed in Section 17 of the Finance Act 2020.

Scheme workings

The scheme will be administered jointly by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Revenue.

This accelerated capital allowance scheme is subject to a total equipment cost of €5m per annum, excluding VAT.

To ensure the €5m total equipment cost (excluding VAT) per annum ceiling is not breached, the Department of Agriculture will issue a Farm Safety/Adaptation Accelerated Capital Allowance certificate for submission to Revenue in support of such claims.

It is important to note that the issuing of this certificate by the Department of Agriculture does not infer entitlement to the accelerated capital allowances, with Revenue being responsible for this aspect.

In launching the scheme, Minister of State with responsibility for Research and Development, Farm Safety and New Market Development, Martin Heydon TD, said that any qualifying adaptations or equipment purchased since 1 January 2021 are eligible. The scheme will remain open until 31 December 2023. Both the full terms and conditions for the scheme and application forms are available here, while a dedicated email address, acafarmsafetyequipment@agriculture.gov.ie, has been set up for any queries pertaining to the scheme.

Required documentation

In addition to a fully completed application form, applicants must also submit scanned copies of receipts for qualifying equipment.

The receipts must include the name, address and VAT number/Tax Reference Number of the supplier.

It must also specify the name and address of the applicant, the date of purchase, actual cost of each item excluding VAT and the amount of VAT paid, with the date of payment clearly marked. Where the applicant is a company, invoices must be submitted in the company name.

The receipt must also detail the make, model and serial number of the investment for equipment aimed at preventing accidents. For adaptation measures, it must include the make and model and state what adaptations have been made.