Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 130:

In page 42, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following:

“Report on extending 10-year ownership and usage period for Capital Gains Tax retirement relief 25. The Minister for Finance shall, within 90 days of the passing of this Act, publish a report on extending the 10-year ownership and usage period for Capital Gains Tax retirement relief to a spouse for lifetime transfers to address an anomaly in the 2014 agri-taxation review.”.

The agri-taxation review report of 2014 identified an anomaly in the taxation system whereby the transfer of the ten-year ownership and usage qualification between spouses in the context of retirement relief from capital gains tax was only allowable where the farm transfer occurred on the death of one of the spouses. Where a farm is transferred into joint ownership, the farmers must own and farm the asset for the next ten years before they can qualify for the capital gains tax retirement relief. This is preventing farms from being transferred into joint ownership and is a disincentive to female participation in agriculture.

Where a farmer has owned and used the asset for ten years and it is transferred into joint names, the transferee's spouse should inherit the same ownership and usage status as his or her spouse who had been farming the land up to that point. This amendment just seeks to clarify that in terms of the retirement relief for capital gains tax. It will not be used often, but this situation is acting as barrier to the transfer of land to joint owners.

A number of years ago, I had the privilege of visiting Iringa in Tanzania to see an Irish Aid project that was being run by Concern. Irish taxpayers' money was involved in assisting women to get their land into joint ownership. The Irish taxpayer was successful in that initiative, which gave equal power and control to the husband and wife in terms of the land's ownership. We are encouraging joint ownership of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa, yet this anomaly in Ireland is putting in place an unfair barrier to women having joint ownership.

I am seeking a small alteration to the definition to ensure that it will not act as a barrier to the transfer of farmland from one spouse to joint ownership.