The Irish Parliament recently passed legislation to provide for a structure specifically tailored to meet the needs of the global funds industry.  The legislation creates a new form of corporate vehicle for funds, known as the Irish Collective Asset-Management Vehicle (ICAV).  In addition to minimizing the administrative complexity and cost of establishing and maintaining a collective investment scheme in Ireland, the ICAV will be an “eligible entity” for U.S. tax purposes, allowing it to “check the box.”  It is anticipated that the ICAV will make it increasingly attractive for fund promoters to establish new corporate funds in Ireland or, allied with the user-friendly Irish re-domiciliation mechanism, to re-domicile offshore funds to Ireland.  See “Redomiciling Offshore Investment Funds to Ireland, the European Gateway,” Hedge Fund Law Report, Vol. 4, No. 8 (Mar. 4, 2011).  The Central Bank of Ireland has recently confirmed that it stands ready and able to accept applications for ICAV structures within two weeks of the legislation being enacted.  In a guest article, Vincent Coyne, a Senior Associate in William Fry’s Asset Management and Investment Funds Department, first focuses on key tax considerations of the ICAV and the opportunities this creates for re-domiciling to Ireland, then examines the practical legal benefits of the new regime.