The Minister for Finance has been urged to put new tax “incentives” in place to support young farmers because of the escalating costs associated with on-farm improvement projects.
Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North-West, Michael Moynihan, said young farmers who are investing in farm facilities, should not be placed in a situation where they could “become mired in debt”.
“This is a serious issue for young farmers at this time who are investing in their farms for the future but are up against escalating costs.
“Getting access to finance is an issue and while I would acknowledge that there are supports available we need to have more incentives to help young farmers and I am going to continue to raise this with the Minister for Finance”.
“We need a review of the current tax allowances in place,” Deputy Moynihan said.
He would like to see specific arrangements put in place for young farmers in relation to farm buildings allowances and accelerated capital allowances for the construction of slurry storage facilities.
Tax allowances
But the Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath, has told Deputy Moynihan that “he has no plans at the present time to review or amend” current supports in place.
“While there are currently no tax allowances for capital works on farms undertaken specifically by young farmers, I would note that supporting young farmers and generational renewal continues to be a priority for both the government and the European Union, and is an important part of the Common Agricultural Programme (CAP).
“For this reason, there are a number of existing tax reliefs which offer additional support to young trained farmers, such as the young trained farmers stock relief under section 667B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA) and the young trained farmer stamp duty relief under section 81AA of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999,” the minister said.
Minister McGrath added that “existing tax expenditure measures are kept under regular review by my department as part of its on-going programme of work”.
“Any subsequent proposals for changes to those measures would normally be addressed within the context of the annual Budget and Finance Bill process,” he added.