Current State Aid approval for BES and SCS expired on 31 December 2006 and an application has had to be made to the EU Commission for the renewal of the approval of the schemes until December 2013 as announced in the Budget and Finance Bill.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will advise the County & City Enterprise Board as soon as approval has been received. In the meantime we encourage you to prepare your submission and be ready to go to Revenue once approval is given (assuming that it is). Dublin City Enteprise Board can provide certification for eligible limited companies. The company limit for both schemes rises from €1 million to €2 million. The investor limit is up from €31,750 to €150,000 for BES and from €31,750 to €100,000 for the Seed Capital Scheme. Qualifying trading operations are; - the manufacture of goods - the operation of certain tourist traffic undertakings - internationally traded services - certain activities which have the potential to become internationally traded services - research and development activity which is undertaken with a view to carrying on certain of these qualifying trading operations and which are certified as such by an industrial development agency - commercial research and development activities - the production, publication, marketing and promotion of a qualifying musical/video recording