ICMSA say Agriculture Relief Budget changes “will hinder farm succession without halting non-farmer land purchases”

The Chairperson of ICMSA’s Farm Business Committee, Pat O’Brien, has said that concern is rapidly growing around the proposed changes to Agriculture & Retirement Relief under Budget 2025. Mr O’Brien said that there was a distinct possibility that the measures as announced by the Minister of Finance could end up hindering genuine farm transfers to the next generation while leaving untouched the controversial purchase of farmland by non-farmers seeking to avail of the farm relief measures to avoid a range of Inheritance and Capital Gains taxation measures.

“If the proposal’s intention was to address land-banking by wealthy non-farming investors and individuals, ICMSA believes that it will fail in this regard and that this land-banking will continue with investors continuing to utilise tax reliefs for this purpose. Even more concerning is the fact that we think that the six-year usage rule, for example, will end up excluding many very genuine farm transfers and we have asked the Government to ensure that this will not be the case when the Finance Bill is published. The whole point of Agriculture Relief is to facilitate the transfer of the family farm from one generation to the next and ensuring that that ‘successor’ generation have the option to continue to farm the land rather than being forced to sell the land to meet a tax liability”, said Mr. O’Brien. 

“The situation we now fear that we’re going to find ourselves in is that genuine family farm situations of the kind that were rightly accommodated under Agriculture Relief could be potentially excluded from the relief, while – very ironically – wealthy non-farm investors will be able to continue to claim this and other reliefs.  If that disaster was to happen, it will mean that many family farms may have to be sold to pay the taxes, which in turn means more farmland becoming available for the investors to buy, the very opposite of what these proposed changes were supposed to achieve”, pointed out the ICMSA Farm Business Committee Chairperson.

Mr. O’Brien said that ICMSA hoped that this will not be the case, and he called on the Minister for Finance to immediately clarify the exact circumstances around the new proposals and commit to ensuring that that farm family situations currently accommodated under Agriculture Relief will continue to obtain the relief. This must be done while targeting the changes introduced under the Finance Bill in a way that impacts on lands purchased by wealthy non-farmer individuals and entities rather than on genuine farm family situations.   

“This is a hugely concerning matter for the farming community and one that requires speedy and decisive intervention on the part of the Minister. As it stands, we think his proposals will hinder farmers but without halting the purchase of land by wealthy non-farmers trying to avoid Inheritance and CGT taxation liabilities”, concluded Mr. O’Brien.

Ends         3 October 2024

Pat O’Brien, 087-4904424

Chairperson, ICMSA Farm Business Committee

Or

Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758

ICMSA Press Office