Key Highlights
- Ireland’s new Investment Account will allow individuals to invest in listed shares, bonds, regulated-market financial instruments, and eligible funds, including ETFs.
- Crypto assets and derivatives are explicitly excluded from the account because they are classified as complex and higher-risk products.
- The roadmap, published by Finance Minister Simon Harris, aims to simplify Ireland’s retail investment tax framework and encourage wider participation in capital markets.
Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has published a roadmap for the taxation of retail investments. The document sets out a pathway to simplify and adapt Ireland’s tax framework for retail investment and identifies options for further reform, while excluding crypto assets from the new Investment Account.
According to the official announcement on August 31, the roadmap also outlines the key parameters of the government’s new investment account. The account is designed to provide individuals who choose to invest with a simpler and more accessible structure for managing savings and investments. It aims to broaden participation in capital markets while offering greater choice in how individuals allocate their funds.
Eligible investments and exclusions
Under the parameters set out in the Roadmap, eligible investments for the new Investment Account include listed shares, listed bonds, financial instruments traded on a regulated market, and suitable investment funds, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Highly complex and risky products are excluded. These include derivatives and crypto assets. The roadmap states that such products will not be eligible for inclusion in the account.
The Investment Account forms part of the broader effort described in the Roadmap to adjust the taxation of retail investments. Officials indicated that the structure is intended to reduce complexity for individual investors while maintaining defined boundaries on the types of assets that can be held within it.
Ireland’s roadmap scope
The Roadmap for the Taxation of Retail Investment presents a series of options for further reform of the existing tax treatment of retail investment products. It addresses the current framework and sets out the intended features of the new account as a practical mechanism for individuals seeking to invest.
Simon Harris, in his dual role as Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, is the named official responsible for the publication. The document focuses on accessibility and simplicity for retail participants while specifying the exclusion of certain product categories.
Related government measures on financial risks
On June 19, the Irish government launched a National Risk Assessment on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing, accompanied by a 30-Point Action Plan. The assessment and plan were announced by Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Minister for Justice, Home Affairs, and Migration Jim O’Callaghan.
The National Risk Assessment identified evolving threats, including increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes, the misuse of crypto-assets, emerging technological risks, terrorist financing, and vulnerabilities linked to global financial networks. Officials noted that financial crime produces real impacts on individuals, families, and communities through scams, fraud, and money laundering.
The roadmap published by Harris addresses the taxation and structure of retail investment products, including the explicit exclusion of crypto assets from the new investment account. The earlier National Risk Assessment and Action Plan separately recorded the misuse of crypto-assets among the threats under review by Irish authorities.
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