Oireachtas Committee in bid to aid retirees
“One of the greatest inequities created by the 1994 and 2000 retirement schemes was participants were deemed to have ceased farming”, said Ollie Wilkinson, TD, who was asked by the Committee to review and report on the schemes.
In his report, he said that farmers who wished to put their land into forestry after taking part in the retirement scheme cannot obtain the “farmer” rate of forestry aid, which is double the non-farmer rate.
Mr Wilkinson has recommended that forestry applicants should be assessed on any one of the previous three years spent in farming prior to application for benefit under the Early Retirement Scheme.
The Fianna Fail TD - who is himself a Retirement Scheme participant - told the Committee that Joint Management Applications caused grief and financial losses for up to 2,800 retirees. He recommended that all Joint Management Applications involving married couples or partners be treated as Joint Ownership Applications, and outstanding monies paid accordingly.
He has also called for pensions to be index linked, and said the upper income limit of 200 income units (€50,000) applying to transferors in certain circumstances should be increased significantly, or dropped entirely, to cater for changes in the farming sector.
The ‘Off-Farm’ income limit of 100 income units (€25,400) applying to transferees in the year prior to application should be dropped, as it is a discouragement to suitably qualified young farmers from getting involved in agriculture, Mr Wilkinson told the Committee.
He recommended that a lease once stamped by the Revenue Commissioners with an open market valuation and full payments made by the tenant or transferee should qualify for the exemption amounts applying to non-family leases.
Otherwise, retired farmers lose out on up to €10,000 per year of tax exemption.
Mr Wilkinson said farmers in the original retirement scheme who were given no consideration in the Single Payment Scheme or CAP changes since 1994 must have their concerns addressed.
But participants in the second scheme were reasonably well catered for, he said.
