Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 47 speaks to one of the core parts of the IREF, which is if a property is held for five years no capital gains tax is paid. The argument we heard put forward on Committee Stage was this was the introduction of capital gains tax. The argument was no capital gains tax is paid on property now, but because of amendment No. 47 if a property is held for less than five years, capital gains tax will be paid. This is being presented to the House as an increase in the tax base, but it is not, because until four or five years ago capital gains tax was paid on property gains, just as it is paid on everything else.

I do not mean to call it a sleight of hand because I am not implying deception, but there is a misunderstanding because this is a marginal benefit in terms of tax if we look at today. Actually what amendment No. 47 does is state to all of those people who invested in property in recent years during a fire sale, that on all of the capital gains they will make, which is a very large number, for some reason they will not pay any capital gains tax. Someone who buys an apartment, sells it and makes €1,000 on the sale will pay capital gains tax. Someone selling shares which increase in value will pay capital gains tax. Someone selling a field which increases in value will pay capital gains tax. Someone selling anything that has gone up in value will pay capital gains tax in this country.

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