When a parent transfers the farm during their lifetime, the transfer is a disposal for Capital Gains Tax — and on land held for decades, the gain can be enormous. Retirement relief is the provision that, where its conditions are met, can reduce or eliminate that CGT. Here is the general shape of it, and why the legal timing of a transfer matters so much.
Mary Molloy Solicitors are solicitors, not tax advisors. Tax information on this page is general in nature. You should obtain advice from a qualified tax advisor or accountant on your specific circumstances; we regularly work alongside clients’ accountants when implementing farm transfers.
What the Relief Is For
The relief exists to let farmers and business owners pass on or dispose of the assets of a lifetime without CGT making the handover impossible. Despite the name, retirement is not required. In outline: the person disposing must be 55 or over and must satisfy ownership and use conditions — broadly, that the assets were owned and used for qualifying farming purposes for the required minimum period.
Age Bands and Limits
The relief operates in age bands, and recent Finance Acts have adjusted them: the treatment of disposals to children differs by the age of the parent at the date of transfer, with limits and mechanisms for larger transfers that changed for disposals from 1 January 2025. We deliberately do not print the numbers here — they are precisely the sort of detail that changes and must come from your tax advisor on current law. What does not change is the planning message: the parent’s age at the date of the deed can materially change the family’s position, so the transfer date is chosen, not stumbled into.
Ownership, Use and Let Land
The ownership-and-use conditions reward long, documented farming history — and contain specific provisions for land that was leased before disposal, including leasing to the child who ultimately takes the transfer, subject to conditions about the leases themselves. This is another place where the solicitor’s file decides the tax outcome: properly drafted, properly dated leases support the claim; handshakes support nothing.
How It Fits the Wider Transfer
A lifetime farm transfer typically engages three taxes at once: the parent’s CGT (retirement relief), the child’s CAT (agricultural relief) and stamp duty (young trained farmer or consanguinity relief). The accountant designs the plan across all three; we execute the deed, rights and registrations so the documents match it. Transfers that go wrong are usually transfers where those two workstreams never met.
Timing a Lifetime Transfer?
Get the tax advice, then let us build the legal structure around it - in that order, and in good time.
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About the Author
Richard O’Shea TEP, Solicitor practises with Mary Molloy Solicitors (established 1981), advising farming families across Ireland on farm transfers, succession planning, wills, probate and agricultural property matters. As a STEP-qualified Trust and Estate Practitioner, Richard specialises in the legal structuring of intergenerational farm transfers, working alongside each family’s accountant and tax advisor. Contact Richard on 01 5827148 or richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Every farm and family situation is different, and you should obtain advice on your own circumstances before acting. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.