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.
Most family farm transfers in Ireland are only affordable because of a small number of statutory reliefs. Understanding what they are — in general terms — helps you have a better first meeting with your accountant, and explains why the legal sequencing of a transfer matters so much. Our role at Mary Molloy Solicitors is the legal implementation: the deeds, wills, leases and partnership agreements that put the plan your tax advisor recommends into effect.
The Reliefs, In Outline
- Agricultural relief (CAT): can reduce the taxable value of qualifying agricultural property by 90% for gift and inheritance tax, subject to an 80% agricultural asset test, active farmer conditions and a six-year clawback. Recent changes extend conditions to the disponer with transitional arrangements — see our article on how agricultural relief works.
- Retirement relief (CGT): can relieve capital gains tax on a lifetime transfer of the farm by a qualifying older farmer, subject to age bands, ownership and use conditions and limits that have changed in recent Finance Acts — see retirement relief for farmers.
- Consanguinity relief (stamp duty): a reduced 1% stamp duty rate on farmland transfers between close relatives, subject to conditions and periodic renewal by the Oireachtas.
- Young trained farmer relief (stamp duty): potential full exemption from stamp duty for qualifying young trained farmers with the required agricultural qualification and business plan — see qualifying conditions explained.
- Long-term leasing exemption (income tax): exempts rental income from qualifying long-term farmland leases up to annual thresholds that rise with lease length — see the leasing exemption explained.
Why the Legal Work Decides Whether the Plan Survives
Reliefs are claimed on tax returns, but they are won or lost in the legal arrangements: whether the letting was a written lease or a handshake; whether the deed reserved rights that change the analysis; whether the land was in the right ownership for long enough; whether entitlements passed correctly; whether the partnership had a real agreement behind it. That is why we ask for your accountant’s recommendations before drafting, and why they ask us to formalise arrangements years before a transfer. Bring both of us in early. Our Farm Transfer Information Tool gives you a plain-English list of which reliefs typically arise for your situation — as questions to bring to your accountant.
Have a Tax Plan That Needs Implementing?
Send us your accountant's recommendations and we will prepare the deeds, leases and wills that give them legal effect.
Call 01 5827148