Stamp duty on farm land falls to 2%

A reduction in stamp duty on agricultural land from 6% to 2% should help stimulate the market for farming land, Minister for Agriculture and Food Simon Coveney said.

The Finance Bill provides for the rate of just 1% stamp duty on transfers to close relatives until the end of 2014.

“This change will substantially reduce the stamp duty payable on transfers of farm land by gift or by sale,” said Mr Coveney.

“It should stimulate a stagnant land market — currently only 0.5% of total agricultural land is offered for sale annually.

“It will also promote inter-generational transfer, with the cost of lifetime transfer to transferees who do not qualify for the young trained farmer stamp duty relief reduced considerably.”

The IFA described measures in the Finance Bill to enable farmers to offset increases in carbon taxes as “insufficient and unworkable”.

IFA president John Bryan said there was a clear commitment given in the Programme for Government that farm diesel would be exempt from any further increases in the carbon tax.

However, Mr Coveney said the proposals were consistent with the commitment in the Programme for Government on carbon tax:

“Farmers will be allowed a double income tax deduction in respect of the increased costs arising from the change in carbon tax [the carbon tax is to increase by €5 per tonne, the equivalent of 1.6c per litre of agricultural diesel].”