{"id":52891,"date":"2025-08-08T12:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T12:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/52891\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T12:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T12:40:07","slug":"independent-ministers-seek-changes-to-inheritance-tax-system-for-adults-with-no-children-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/52891\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent ministers seek changes to inheritance tax system for adults with no children \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent Ministers have pushed for changes to the inheritance tax<\/a> system for the beneficiaries of estates left by people with no children.<\/p>\n

A campaign group known as Edit (End Discrimination in Inheritance Tax) has been contacting politicians as part of efforts to bring about reforms to the capital acquisitions tax (CAT) regime, which it says is \u201cgrossly unfair\u201d.<\/p>\n

Independent Ministers of State Michael Healy-Rae<\/a> and Marian Harkin<\/a> have raised the issue with Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe<\/a>. Their separate interventions are included in records released under the Freedom of Information Act. <\/p>\n

CAT applies at a rate of 33 per cent on gifts or inheritances above certain tax-free thresholds that depend on the beneficiary\u2019s relationship to the person that gives them the gift or inheritance. <\/p>\n

For spouses and civil partners, inheritances are free of tax. Children inheriting from a parent can receive up to \u20ac400,000 tax-free. <\/p>\n

For other relatives a tax-free threshold of \u20ac40,000 applies, while non-relatives can receive up to \u20ac20,000 tax free.<\/p>\n

Edit argues the thresholds that apply to the beneficiaries of the estates of childless adults are \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d.<\/p>\n

One option Edit has proposed would be allowing people to inherit a home tax-free and to abolish the thresholds in favour of an across-the-board 10 per cent levy on all other assets.<\/p>\n

Mr Healy-Rae and Ms Harkin highlighted Edit\u2019s campaign in contacts with Mr Donohoe last March. <\/p>\n

Kerry TD Mr Healy-Rae included correspondence from Edit by saying it is a \u201cgenuine campaign for people who do not have children\u201d, who are being \u201cunfairly\u201d treated by the tax system. He said the information he enclosed \u201cmay be helpful in future budgets\u201d.<\/p>\n

This week Mr Healy-Rae said \u201dthis is something I am very much pursuing and would like to see changed\u201d, though he did not offer specifics on what he would like to see happen.<\/p>\n

Mr Healy-Rae also said: \u201cI am acutely aware of the pressures on the upcoming budget\u201d, including \u201cthe threat of tariffs to our economy\u201d and issues such as the proposal to cut the VAT rate for the hospitality sector. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will continue to push for change on this and while it may not be possible for this upcoming budget it\u2019s something I\u2019m focused on for the lifetime of this Government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In her email to Mr Donohoe, Sligo-Leitrim TD Ms Harkin told the Minister she received representations from a number of constituents on inheritance tax for couples who do not have children. She asked that the issue be reviewed \u201cwith a view to increasing the threshold\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Ms Harkin said she has \u201cno further comment on the issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department of Finance said: \u201cIt is a long-standing practice of the Minister for Finance not to comment in advance of the budget on any tax matters which might be the subject of budget decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It noted that inheritance tax was covered in this year\u2019s Tax Strategy Papers, in which department officials set out options that inform the budget process. <\/p>\n

Government backbenchers Aindrias Moynihan and Shay Brennan of Fianna F\u00e1il and Barry Ward of Fine Gael asked Mr Donohoe about CAT in parliamentary questions last month.<\/p>\n

As part of his answer, Mr Donohoe said: \u201cThere would be a significant cost in making any further substantial changes to CAT\u201d and \u201cthe options available for setting CAT thresholds must be balanced against competing demands\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent Ministers have pushed for changes to the inheritance tax system for the beneficiaries of estates left by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,44202,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-52891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-irish-politics","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}