The renewal of various stamp duty reliefs in the October budget is crucial for the development of the sector, IFA farm business chair Rose Mary McDonagh has said.
“Consanguinity and consolidation reliefs under the stamp duty code along with the Young Trained Farm reliefs are vital to the sustainability and viability of the agricultural sector. They align with generational renewal, one of the nine objectives of the CAP.”
Capped relief
The Young Trained Farmer Stamp Duty relief was capped in the Finance Bill of 2018. It was amalgamated with the Stock and Succession Partnership Reliefs with a lifetime limit of €70,000 applied.
McDonagh believes: “This limit should be fully removed to allow for greater land mobility and, in turn, encourage land transfer.”
Stamp duty
McDonagh said that agricultural land should be treated separately to commercial property for the purposes of stamp duty.
“At present, agricultural land is considered commercial property and therefore the rate of stamp duty that applies to farms in 7.5% up from as low 2% in 2017.
“Agriculture is a low-margin, highly capital-intensive business, which requires investment in land, its primary asset. Agricultural land must be removed from the commercial definition and revised in line with the residential stamp duty charge of 1%, up to €1m, and 2% thereafter.”
The clock is ticking - farm organisations react