{"id":621657,"date":"2026-09-11T18:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621657\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T18:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:08:12","slug":"jack-chambers-rules-out-equalising-inheritance-thresholds-in-budget-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621657\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Chambers rules out equalising inheritance thresholds in budget \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a> has effectively ruled out the equalisation of inheritance tax<\/a> thresholds between children and other relatives in the upcoming budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Currently anyone can inherit \u20ac400,000 from their parents but if an aunt or uncle wants to give their niece or nephew a gift or an inheritance, the tax<\/a>-free threshold is just \u20ac40,000, after which it is subject to a capital acquisitions tax of 33 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI acknowledge there is a significant campaign around this which is concentrated on Category B,\u201d Chambers told the Dublin Economics Workshop event in Wexford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Category A threshold governs inheritances received by children while Category B covers inheritances received by siblings, nieces, nephews and grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of equalising inheritance tax between category A and B is hundreds of millions of euro, far outside of what\u2019s available in our tax package,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have discussed, and are considering, broader adjustments to inheritance tax across different categories but it will be within what\u2019s available,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Chambers has signalled he will change the inheritance thresholds, which have not kept pace with housing values. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inheritance tax in Ireland: \u2018The rules are absolutely skewed against the childless\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about using a number of budgets to make a difference on this but across different categories so we\u2019re not solely focused on Category B,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tax expenditure cost of every \u20ac5,000-\u20ac10,000 [change to the thresholds] is very significant, so we have to be honest about what\u2019s available when we\u2019re prioritising income tax<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chambers again played down expectations of a big tax giveaway in next month\u2019s budget, suggesting the tax package would be \u201cmoderate overall\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"From kitchen counter to supermarket shelves, the rise of Ballymaloe Foods<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government<\/a> would like to prioritise a series of modest adjustments to income tax over the next number of years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> told RT\u00c9 earlier that the Government was committed to increasing the threshold at which workers pay the higher rate of income tax in each of the next four budgets.<\/p>\n

Harris has in recent days said middle-income earners would benefit significantly from the tax changes, while Chambers has tried to manage expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should use successive budgets to try and reward work and support workers across the economy and to ensure the cumulative impact of that really makes a difference to workers over the next number of years,\u201d Chambers said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Budget 2027: Simon Harris seeks to reassure middle-income earners on tax cutsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Government has signalled that \u20ac1.5 billion will be set aside for a tax package in Budget 2027, most of which will be used to protect workers from inflation.<\/p>\n

Asked if the recent surge in energy prices<\/a> would change the budgetary arithmetic, Chambers said the Government would use the social protection system to protect lower-income groups from the current squeeze on living costs<\/a>, hinting that there would additional grant supports.<\/p>\n

In his address to the workshop, Chambers said the Government\u2019s new Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce was already increasing the \u201cdelivery rate\u201d. <\/p>\n

He noted that Dublin\u2019s MetroLink<\/a> project was now movingmore quickly than when he first came to office. <\/p>\n

The contract to oversee the project was this week awarded to engineering and consultancy consortium Jacobs and Aecom.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish inflation jumps to 3.7% on back of energy price surgeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Next month\u2019s budget would prioritise capital investment to deliver \u201ccritical infrastructure\u201d while moderating the rate of growth in current spending.<\/p>\n

The rapid rise in public spending \u2013 it jumped by 54 per cent between 2019 and 2025 \u2013 has become a big flashpoint for the Government.<\/p>\n

Chambers has promised a \u201cfundamental change\u201d in budgeting and has warned departments they will face greater sanctions for breaching their spending allocations.<\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s new Medium Term Fiscal and Structural Plan pledges to limit the annual increase in public spending to 6 per cent a year for the next five budgets.<\/p>\n

The annual increase in spending will taper from 7.2 per cent this year to 5.4 per cent in 2029 and 5.2 per cent in 2030, equating to average annual increase over the period of 6 per cent.<\/p>\n

Under the plan, Chambers told the conference that the total Government expenditure ceiling would increase from \u20ac109.9 billion in 2025 to \u20ac147.3 billion in 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has effectively ruled out the equalisation of inheritance tax thresholds between children…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5168,72,943,5485,176,1523,61,17691,5145,14305,60,13808,29093,174,175,70,5066],"class_list":["post-621657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-budget","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-energy-costs","tag-finance","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-income-tax","tag-inheritance","tag-inheritance-tax","tag-ireland","tag-jack-chambers","tag-metrolink","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-simon-harris","tag-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}