12th February, 2020
Young Trained Farmer Relief and State Aid
Section 81AA of the Stamp Duty Consolidation Act 1999 provides for stamp duty relief for a Young Trained Farmer (“YTF”) in certain circumstances. It can be claimed whether the land is acquired by way of gift or is purchased.
Since 1 January 2019, there is a limit of €70,000 in state aid that may be claimed by the applicant for the relief. The relief from stamp duty is deemed to be state aid. Two other reliefs count towards the ceiling, namely stock relief and succession farm partnership relief. When claiming YTF stamp duty relief through ROS, the return requires the aggregate figure for the amount of the three reliefs claimed since 1 July 2014 to be inserted. Once the ceiling of €70,000 is reached no further YTF stamp duty relief will be available and stamp duty will be payable on the balance.
Transferees make enquiries at an early stage in the transaction to ascertain whether or not the YTF has claimed relevant state aid since 1 July 2014 and, if so, in what amount, so that they can deal with the stamping of the deed appropriately.
Clients should also ensure that supporting documentation (such as a certified copy of the deed of transfer, birth certificate, agricultural qualification, Teagasc certificate, farm records) in relation to the YTF claim is retained on file for six years from the later of the date of the stamp duty return or the amended stamp duty return or the date the stamp duty was paid as it may be requested by Revenue in the event of a follow-up compliance check.
Consanguinity relief
This relief is available on transfers of agricultural land (not including the value of any farmhouse) from certain relatives and subject to certain conditions and reduces the rate of stamp duty from 7.5% (or 6%) to 1%. It will frequently be available to claim when YTF stamp duty relief applies. Revenue has confirmed that consanguinity relief is applied before YTF relief and therefore reduces the amount of state aid being granted.
Therefore, while a deed might have a nil liability to stamp duty arising from YTF relief, consanguinity relief, if available, should also be claimed (by ticking the relevant box in the ROS return) in order to reduce the amount of state aid which will be counted towards the limit of €70,000.
Further information on YTF relief, the state aid ceiling, consanguinity relief, including worked examples, is available in Part 7 of the Revenue stamp duty manual (July 2019) on the Revenue website.
