Finance Bill a ‘missed opportunity’ for farm consolidation incentives

Tax and stamp duty incentives to promote farmland consolidation could have been implemented into the Finance Bill at minimal cost, according to the ICMSA.

The milk supplier group’s taxation chairman Lorcan McCabe said this omission was a missed opportunity, in which the Department of Finance could have addressed anomalies in the taxation system that weren’t tackled in Budget 2012.

Mr McCabe said: “The ICMSA believes that it is crucial that full-time farmers wishing to enlarge their holding to grow their farm business into a viable unit must be allowed to do so with the minimum application of stamp duty and I’m extremely disappointed that the Finance Bill did not reintroduce farm consolidation stamp duty relief.”

He said that current government policy is effectively penalising any farmer wishing to consolidate his/her holdings to grow and expand their business. He suggested that capital gains tax rollover relief should be introduced on a limited basis to encourage both farm consolidation and parcel swaps for individuals who wish to expand their enterprise.

“While I welcomed the fact that Minister Noonan exempted from capital gains tax those compensation payments to turf cutters for giving up the right to cut turf in special areas of conservation, I firmly believe that a similar exemption should be extended to individuals wishing to purchase land close to their holdings in order to consolidate their farm enterprise,” he said.