Tax Reliefs Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24 ============================================================ Robert Troy (FF), Longford-Westmeath I thank the Senator for raising this matter. It is quite popular currently, largely due to the work of the end tax discrimination group. The group is contacting us all and I acknowledge that it is doing great advocacy work, as the Senator is herself. She has raised this before in the Seanad. The capital acquisitions tax, CAT, is a beneficiary-orientated tax that is payable by the recipient of a gift or inheritance as opposed to the person providing that gift or inheritance. CAT plays an important role in ensuring that we maintain a broad tax base and raised €854 million in 2024 and €1.12 billion in 2025, so it is not an insignificant sum of money. For CAT purposes, the relationship between the person giving the gift or inheritance and the person receiving it determines the maximum amount, known as the group threshold, below which CAT does not arise. The Finance Act 2024 increased each threshold by approximately 20%, with an estimated cost of €88 million. The group A threshold, which in general applies where the beneficiary is a child of the disponer, increased to €400,000 from €335,000. It is useful to note that the definition of "children" for capital acquisitions tax purposes includes any stepchildren, adopted children or certain foster children. All can avail of the group A threshold in respect of gifts and inheritance received from the disponer. The group B threshold increased to €40,000 from €32,500. This threshold applies where the beneficiary is a brother, sister, nephew, niece or linear ancestor or descendant such as a grandchild of the disponer. The group C threshold increased to €20,000 from €16,250, with this threshold applying in all other cases. It should be borne in mind that where a person receives a gift or inheritance that is in excess of the relevant tax-free threshold, CAT at a rate of 33% applies on all excess benefits. It is important to be aware that there are significant costs associated with increasing the existing thresholds. For instance, an increase in threshold A to €500,000 would cost in the region of €86.6 million, while an increase in threshold B to €60,000 would cost approximately €70 million. In relation to the idea of combining thresholds A and B and bringing relatives such as nephews, nieces, brothers and sisters within the scope of the higher threshold, the Senator should note that Department of Finance officials reviewed this matter last year in the CAT tax strategy group paper. As part of this exercise, Revenue estimated that the cost of merging groups A and B to be in the region of €305 million. These costs have been updated recently, and it is estimated that such a change could now cost in the region of €350 million. It is fair to say this is a significant sum of money, and while I appreciate the Senator's sentiment toward the issue, it is not an easy undertaking from a budgetary perspective. The tax strategy group paper was published in advance of the budget and is the best means of considering issues such as inheritance tax in an analytical and transparent way. The group is not a decision-making body and the papers produced by the Department of Finance are simply a list of options and issues to be considered in the budgetary process. Officials included a further update on this matter in this year’s tax strategy group papers, which will be published shortly. I assure the Senator that the Tánaiste is conscious of the burden of capital taxation and continues to engage with his officials on these matters. He also met with the End Discrimination in Inheritance Tax group and I understand that further engagement with it is going to take place. As with all taxation matters, this will form part of the budgetary consideration, which has started for next year's budget. I welcome that there is updated data in the tax strategy group's papers this year that will help inform the decisions and considerations that the Tánaiste and the wider Government will have to make in advance of the upcoming budget. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-24