Capital Gains Tax Exemptions to provide relief for farmers affected by changes to Common Agriculture Policy – Humphreys

Fine Gael TD for Cavan Monaghan, Heather Humpreys, today (Friday) welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan TD, that he intends to provide a capital gains tax (CGT) exemption in this year’s Finance Bill.

“The news of CGT exemptions is really positive news for many farmers. Farmers who have sold or who have been advised to dispose of their Single Farm Payment entitlements as a result of changes introduced under the new EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

“A technical change made at EU level to the new CAP arrangements for replacing the Single Payment Scheme for farmers with the Basic Payment Scheme, impacts on farmers who let all of their land and has a knock on effect on farm payment entitlements. Due to the changes, farmers in this position will lose their farm payment entitlements and they have been advised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to sell those entitlements to active farmers. Farmers who take this advice would be subject to CGT.

“The changes to the new CAP would have meant that farmers who lease their land would either lose their farm payment entitlements or they would be forced to sell and be subject to CGT. The Minister for Finance recognised that farmers were unable to prepare for this change and so is making an exemption from CGT. This is available to any chargeable gains arising from the disposal by the owners of payment entitlements under the scheme where all of those entitlements were leased out in 2013 and where the owners, were advised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to transfer their entitlements.

“Many farmers who would have been subject to the CGT are elderly or ill, they are in most cases farmers who are unable to farm their own land.

“The Government is dedicated to supporting and encouraging farmers and to ensuring that economic recovery is felt in all regions and in all sectors. The Minister today has put an end to uncertainty for farmers who are affected but it essential that those affected speak to an agricultural advisor to ensure that entitlements are transferred before 15^th May.”