O’Dowd welcomes proposed amendment to finance bill

Macra na Feirme national president Kieran O’Dowd has welcomed the proposed amendment to the finance bill to change the criteria to qualify as a ‘farmer’ for the purposes of agricultural relief for capital acquisitions tax.

It is now proposed to change the definition of ‘active farmer’ from a person spending at least 50% of their time farming to ‘farming on a commercial basis’.

Mr O’Dowd, said: “This is a sensible and positive development. There are many young farmers who are also working off farm with the intention of building up their farm enterprise over time.