Although on the face of it the announcement of an increase in entrepreneur’s relief in today’s Budget speech was welcome, it is hard not to be sceptical of such a measure at a time of increasing costs of doing business.
Today’s speech confirmed additional costs for employers with an increase in minimum wage from 1 January 2026 to €14.15 from €13.50 along with the reminder of auto-enrolment being rolled out from 1 January 2026. This is in addition to the employers’ PRSI increase of 0.1% that took effect on 1 October.
The major capital gains tax reliefs of retirement relief and entrepreneur's relief are in major need of improvement. Today’s announcement on entrepreneurs’ relief (now applying up to a limit of €1.5m as opposed to €1m) is welcome but is only a very small move in the right direction.
A business owner selling a business worth €10m will still face an effective capital gains tax rate of c.30%, even if the relief and new limit applies to them. This is a small decrease from an effective rate of 31% on the previous limit.
In an address that focused on volatility and building resilience for future it would have been important to see more support for SMEs and business owners. Aside from the entrepreneur's relief change, and improvements to the R&D credits (which only those entitled to claim such a relief can benefit from), there was little else to be excited about as a business owner.
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