Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 45:

In page 73, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “Amendment to Chapter 2 of Part 23 of Principal Act (farming: relief for increase in stock values)

25.(1) The Principal Act is amended—

(a) in section 667B—

(i) in subsection (5)(b), by the substitution of “30 June 2023” for “31 December 2022”, and

(ii) in subsection (5B), by the deletion of “as provided for by Article 18 of Commission Regulation (EU) No. 702/2014 of 25 June 2014 or that Regulation as may be revised from time to time”,

(b) in section 667C—

(i) in subsection (2), by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (b):

“(b) the following was substituted for subsection (4)—

‘(4)(a) A deduction shall not be allowed under this section in computing a company’s trading income for any accounting period which ends after 30 June 2023.

(b) Any deduction allowed by virtue of this section in computing the profits or gains of a trade of farming for an accounting period of a person other than a company shall not apply for any purpose of the Income Tax Acts for any year of assessment later than the year 2023.’,”,

and

(ii) in subsection (4), by the substitution of “30 June 2023” for “31 December 2022”,

and

(c) in section 667D(8)(b), by the deletion of “as provided for by Article 18 of Commission Regulation (EU) No. 702/2014 of 25 June 2014 or that Regulation as may be revised from time to time”.

(2) Subsection (1)shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister for Finance may appoint by order.”.

Amendments Nos. 45, 63, 66 and 76 have been grouped together because they share a number of attributes, particularly in that they all relate to agri-tax matters. I will speak on amendments Nos. 45, 63 and 76 first because they relate to five agri-tax reliefs that are due to expire at the end of this year. Amendment No. 45 deals with stock reliefs in the income tax and corporation tax area, including the extension of the stock relief for young trained farmers and that for registered farm partnerships. Amendment No. 63 deals with two agri-tax reliefs in the stamp duty area, namely, the young trained farmer and farm consolidation reliefs. Amendment No. 76 deals with one agri-tax relief in the CGT area, which is farm restructuring relief. As I announced on budget day, I have decided to extend all five of these reliefs, and these three amendments provide for the extension of each of them.

All five relief schemes also constitute forms of EU state aid, which are allowable in accordance with the agriculture block exemption regulation, ABER. The current ABER is due to expire on 31 December 2022. A revised ABER is currently being negotiated at European level, but it has not yet been officially confirmed when it will come into effect. Officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have, however, advised me they are confident that reliefs of this nature will continue to be considered an acceptable form of state aid under the terms of the revised ABER when it comes into effect. Pending the introduction of the revised regulation, I am relying on Article 51 of the current ABER to extend each of these relief schemes by six months, until 30 June 2023. Article 51 allows for any exempted schemes under the existing regulation to remain exempted during an adjustment period of six months. Once the new ABER is introduced, I can then provide for a further extension of each of these relief schemes beyond this initial extension period of six months. These extensions will be to the end of 2024 for the two stock reliefs covered by amendment No. 45 and to the end of 2025 for the stamp duty and CGT reliefs covered by amendments Nos. 63 and 76. Some additional technical changes to the stock relief and stamp duty sections of their respective Acts are also provided for in amendments Nos. 45 and 63, primarily to accommodate the extensions provided for.

I now turn to amendment No. 66. Certain agricultural tax reliefs require that applicants hold a relevant educational qualification. Currently, the relevant qualifications are set out in different tables or schedules of a number of the Tax Acts. Owing to this, it has proven administratively burdensome to keep the lists of acceptable qualifications up to date, and also for would be claimants of the reliefs concerned to ascertain their eligibility. Therefore, in recent years Revenue has accepted courses recognised by Teagasc without updating the Acts. I am of the view that this approach should not continue to operate but I equally recognise that the current means of listing the qualifications is not sustainable. I have therefore decided that this process should be streamlined. Work on this matter has involved the combined efforts of my Department, Revenue, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Teagasc. Following on from this work, all parties have agreed to a preferred unified approach, which this section gives effect to. It provides for a singular list to be established for the verification of all educational qualifications for agri-tax relief purposes and that Teagasc will have responsibility for maintaining, publishing and updating that list. This new approach to the listing of the qualifications necessary for certain agri-tax reliefs will be considerably more efficient and transparent from the point of view of both those administering the reliefs and those hoping to avail of them.

I recommend that each of these four amendments be approved by the committee.