The Stamp Duty Reduction

Legal notice 131 of 2017 of the Family Business Act provides a stamp duty reduction on the transfers of shares and of commercial immovable property by gratuitous title in family businesses.

Parents transferring their family business to their children benefit from a reduced stamp duty of 5% to 1.5%. This applies to transfers made on or after April 1st of 2017. The Ministry of Finance has also published a notice informing the public, that the fiscal measure of a reduced duty rate for the Inter-Generation Family Business Transfer has been extended. The new deadline for application intake is now the 30th of September of this year.

The Family Business Act back in 2016 was introduced to develop an administrative environment and legal framework for family owned businesses. The Act encourages regulation on family businesses and aims to provide assistance in transferring a family owned business from one generation to the next.

Fiscal benefits were introduced to facilitate the transfers of family businesses, namely;

  • A reduced stamp duty rate of 3.5% chargeable on the first €500,000 of the value of the immovable property
  • Exemptions of stamp duty on a capped value of shares; no stamp duty will be payable on the first €150,000

Contact our team at Firstbridge should you need more information about the Family Business Act or if you need help submitting your application on time.