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State aid rules
Discretionary relief is subject to state aid rules. You must declare either that your enterprise has received no state aid, or provide details of any such assistance. If the state aid limit is exceeded, any overpayment is recoverable with interest from the recipient.
The following explains the information that we need:
We provide discretionary relief under the De Minimis Regulation (Regulation 1998/2006). This allows an enterprise to receive up to €200,000 de minimis aid over any period of three fiscal years.
To establish whether you are eligible to receive de minimis aid, you must declare the full amount of de minimis aid granted to you during the previous two fiscal years and the current fiscal year.
Any assistance you have received, or are due to receive, from a public body may be de minimis aid. This could be any aid, grant or support from central, regional, devolved governments or agencies or a local council. Assistance could have been granted to your organisation, parent organisation or another company within your group. You must declare all assistance.
The following is not a comprehensive list of all possible forms of aid. However, it should give you an indication of common forms of aid, which you may have been given over the past three years.
Type of aid | Description |
State grants | Provision of goods and services on preferential terms |
Interest rate relief | Indemnities against operating losses |
Tax relief | Reimbursement of costs in the event of success |
Tax credits | State guarantees, whether direct or indirect, to credit operations preferential re-discount rates |
State guarantees or holdings | Dividend guarantees |
State provision of goods or services on preferential terms | Preferential public ordering |
Direct subsidies | Reduction of, or exemption from, charges or taxes, including accelerated depreciation and the reduction of social contributions |
Tax exemptions | Deferred collection of fiscal or social contributions |
Preferential interest rates | Assistance financed by special levies |
Guarantees of loans on especially favourable terms | Capital transfers |
Acquisition of land or buildings either gratuitously or on favourable terms | Certain state holdings in the capital of undertakings. |
Any organisation giving you assistance under the de minimis regulation should give you a letter confirming this.
If you are not sure whether any public assistance you have received is de minimis aid, please contact the body that granted the assistance to clarify this.
Please then provide us with information about all forms of public assistance under €200,000 you have received in the last three years.
You should detail the amount of aid, the period it is for, the organisation providing it and the nature of the aid (for example Retail Relief).