The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has welcomed confirmation from Taoiseach Simon Harris that changes to agricultural relief announced in Budget 2025 will be postponed.
The Taoiseach made the announcement while speaking at the IFA Farming and Food Conference held in Co. Kildare on Thursday (October 31).
The government has agreed an amendment to the Finance Bill 2024 so that the agricultural relief changes will require a commencement order to be signed before they can come into force.
The Taoiseach said that this will now allow further consultation to take place with stakeholders on these changes.
“I’m very pleased that myself and the Minister for Finance (Jack Chambers) have agreed amendments to the Finance Bill to provide for a commencement order.
“In other words, it wouldn’t come in (to effect) until there’s been proper consultation and engagement with stakeholders,” he said.
Agricultural relief
IFA Farm Business Committee chair Bill O’Keeffe said that while IFA was keen to ensure that agricultural relief was targeted towards genuine farmers, the decision to take more care over the detail was the correct one.
“IFA have engaged with the Department of Finance since the budget was announce on October 1 and highlighted the unintended consequences that these changes in requirement to qualify for agricultural relief would cause many genuine farmers.
“IFA’s position is that agricultural relief must be retained for genuine farmers, as it a vital tax relief that allows for the transfer of farms from one generation to the next,” he said.
The farm organisation chair said that the concerns of farmers and their financial advisors in relation to meeting the proposed 6-year donor active farmer test have been voiced to department officials.
“It is good that government have listened to the concerns raised by IFA and that the necessary time will now be allowed to ensure that any changes to agricultural relief will not affect genuine farm transfers in the future.
“However, it is important that the issue is not left on the back burner.
“There must be changes to ensure the relief is targeted to genuine farmers and not open to non-farmer investors. Engagement must continue to find a clear wording that achieves this,” O’Keeffe said.