The principal amendments to the CGT provisions are contained in Chapter 6 of Part 1 of the Bill. Among the amendments are changes to some of the provisions relating to retirement relief, confirmation of when a disposal is deemed to take place when land is purchased under a compulsory purchase order (CPO), and to the exemption from CGT provided under S611 TCA 1997 for disposals to the State, public bodies and certain charities.
With regard to retirement relief, Section 54 of the Bill provides that in the case of disposals made on or after 4 February 2010 the receipt by an individual of a payment made as a result of a redemption, repayment or purchase by a company of its own shares where such payment is not treated as a distribution under S130 TCA 1997 will be taken into account for the purposes of determining if the €750,000 threshold has been reached by the retiring individual. Consequently a retiring individual who is selling their business to a third party may now meet or exceed the €750,000 threshold for retirement relief sooner than would otherwise have been the case.
Per S53 of the Bill, for disposals made on or after 4 February 2010 land sold under CPO is deemed to have been disposed of when the person from whom the land was purchased receives the consideration. This eliminates the possibility of an individual who has sold land by way of CPO becoming liable to pay the CGT before they receive their consideration.
S611 TCA 1997 provides that disposals to the State, public bodies and certain charities are exempt from CGT. The amendment contained in S57 of the Bill clarifies what bodies are deemed to be public bodies for the purposes of this section and confirms that they are national cultural institutions which are funded by way of grant or grant-in-aid, or funded directly by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. The section goes on to list the relevant bodies which include The Chester Beatty Library, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, and The National Concert Hall.