Revenue have published eBrief No. 04/2017 in relation to Finance Act 2016 changes to section 86 (Dwelling House Exemption) and Schedule 2 (Group Thresholds) CATCA 2003.
There are two fundamental changes to Dwelling House Exemption.
- First, the exemption will only be available for inheritances, the only exception will be where a person gifts a dwelling house to a dependent relative.
- Secondly, the inherited dwelling house must have been the deceased person’s principal private residence at the date of his or her death.
This second requirement will be relaxed in situations where the deceased person had to leave the house before the date of death because of ill health, for example, to live in in a nursing home. These changes take effect for gifts/inheritances on or after 25 December 2016.
The new increased CAT thresholds will apply to gifts/inheritances taken on or after 12 October 2016 bringing the thresholds to €310,000 for Group A, €32,500 for Group B and €16,250 for Group C.
