Welcome to our Summer Newsletter, as each edition season or quarter passes we become increasingly excited and optimistic that the improving economy will bring some level of benefit to our clients businesses or reward for persevering and surviving through the recession. There is plenty of evidence now of a general improvement with most economic indicators turning positive. Exchequer returns are ahead of target, employment is growing, property prices rising, confidence is returning and practically all economic forecasts are for our economy to grow in 2014 - 2016 at varying levels.

Did you know that you can access up to €3,000 in tax back per year by availing of a Section 481 Film Relief Scheme?

Quintas currently have a film investment opportunity for interested investors.

To view our information leaflet on the scheme please click here.

Please click here to register your interest.

If you have any queries on this investment opportunity please contact the Quintas Tax Department on 021 4641400 or email info@quintas.ie.

After many months of continuous bad press concerning the management of a few charitable organisations, all charities may feel themselves tarnished with the same brush. The revelations of how some charities have been managed and how the funds they raised were used have caused huge alarm among the public. In the absence of full implementation of the Charities Act 2009, the absence of a strong and ethical board, poor internal corporate governance policies and the lack of a uniform framework of how best to disclose their financial stewardship, some charities are left struggling to achieve “Best Practice for Charities”.

Charities Act 2009

The Charities Act 2009 was enacted on 28 February 2009 but to date has not been fully implemented and the aim is to undertake it in stages.

The purpose of the Charities Act 2009 is to reform the law relating to charities in order to:

• ensure greater accountability
• protect against abuse of charitable status and fraud
• enhance public trust and confidence in charities and increase transparency in the charity sector

Revenue is to enforce tax rules which affects people who charge money for taking care of children in their own homes, but don’t declare the income.

There has always been tax rules in place for child-minders, however an e-brief sent to accounting practitioners Nationally implies that the Revenue are now going to start following-up and enforcing, these tax rules..

Working in conjunction with the Department of Social Welfare as well as the HSE, Revenue is seeking to ensure child-minders file tax returns and pay accordingly.

Coffee Morning held for Irish Guide Dogs

On Friday 2nd May we held a coffee morning in aid of the Irish Guide Dogs to support their annual Shades fundraising campaign.

Thanks to all who attended the event and to Catherine Verling, Corporate Fundraising Assistant with IGB and Heidi the Guide Dog for popping by.

Quintas Junior Cert Revision Course

Cork Junior Cert students gathered at Quintas in March to swot up on Business Studies, ahead of their State examinations in June.

Quintas Partner, Fachtna O’Mahony was behind the initiative.  The course has been provided by Quintas over the last five years which covered such topics as time planning, topic prediction, marking schemes and question selection for the Business Studies Junior Cert Exam.

Appointment Announcement

Quintas Wealth Management is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Client Relationship Executive namely Shirley McMahon to its Life and Pensions team.

Shirley is a graduate of UCC where she obtained a Bachelor of Commerce and has over 10 years’ experience of working in the financial services sector, including positions with Cornmarket Group & AA Insurance.

Shirley will have the responsibility for administration and client servicing at Quintas Wealth Management.

Debt Resolution Open Evenings

The Quintas PIP, Mark Ryan, is hosting FREE Information Evenings on debt resolution, insolvency and bankruptcy on Wednesday evenings from 5pm to 7pm.  These open evenings offer you the opportunity to meet with Mark Ryan for a 15 minute consultation whereby he can advise you on how you can best overcome your debt worries.  If you would like to avail of this offer contact Sarah O'Neill on 021 4641400 or email soneill@quintas.ie

Quintas featured in the Cork News

We had a number of articles featured in the Cork News over the last number of weeks.  To view some of the articles which appeared click on the links below:

• Company profile - Quintas and Quintas Wealth Management
  
• Data Protection - How safe are you?
• Sources of Enterprise Funding

Figures recently released by the Department of Finance show continuing signs of improvement for the domestic economy. Overall the figures show a solid start to the year with the figures broadly in line with expectations. They reflect an improvement in the economy including a reduction in unemployment, growing income tax receipts while expenditure on public services remains within budget. 

Some headline figures to the end of March are as follows:

Like everyone you need to protect yourself and your family against the financial impact of serious illness or death. However, as a business owner your protection needs are different. Your business will provide some financial security, however you probably are not entitled to employee benefits. In addition, the future earnings of the business is dependant on others.

As a business owner you need to consider what would happen to your share of the business if you died prematurely and the financial impact that could have on your family. You also need to consider what would happen to the business if a co-owner died prematurely.  

What would happen to your family if you died prematurely?

• Would they take over your share of the business?
• Would the remaining shareholders have the funds needed to buy your share back from your family?
• Has this plan been formalised?

Cork Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic fund exclusively focused on the Cork region, recently announced the availability of their second tranche of funding for enterprises in the city and county. They are calling for applications from businesses and community enterprises in Cork who need funding to expand, develop or sustain their organisations.

The deadline for applications for the second tranche is 9^th May 2014.

Organisations can apply online via Cork Foundation

After a slow start we are starting to see some progress with the new insolvency arrangements (DRN/DSA & PIA) and also with the changes to the bankruptcy legislation.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) recently issued their 1^st quarterly report which showed mixed results. Since the ISI began accepting applications for the new personal insolvency arrangements 7 months ago, there have only been 55 schemes of arrangement approved by creditors (DRN 44/DSA 7/PIA 4).

Although the Debt Settlement Arrangement (DSA) scheme is working, only 7 have been approved and the average write down was 77%.The DSA scheme is for those debtors with unsecured debts of more than € 20,000 in total.