I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the conditions for qualifying for the Stamp Duty exemption for transfers of land to young trained farmers include the following [s.81AA Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 refers]:
- The young trained farmer must be aged under 35 at the date of execution of the deed;
- S/he must furnish a declaration (to his/her solicitor/filer who will be filing the on-line self-assessed return) to the effect that s/he will, for a period of five years from the date of execution of the deed, spend not less than 50% of his/her normal working time farming the land and will retain ownership of the land for that period.
- In addition, the transferee must have attained one of the necessary qualifications set out in the relevant law and listed in Revenue Leaflet SD2B, available at http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/stamp-duty/leaflets/sd2b.pdf . The training qualifications are subject to approval by Teagasc, which is under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and cover specific awards made by the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) and the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC). In addition, certain degrees awarded by University College Dublin and University of Limerick fulfil the criteria.
I am advised by the Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine and by Teagasc that as the course in question is not listed on Revenue Schedule SD2B (qualifications recognised for Stamp Duty Exemption) an applicant is allowed by Revenue to request Teagasc to ascertain if the course is equivalent to courses listed.
If Teagasc deems the qualification to be equivalent, it issues a letter of equivalence. In doing so Teagasc is required to certify to Revenue that the qualification corresponds to the qualification listed on the Revenue SD2B schedule. This requires Teagasc to examine the qualification in detail and ensure that it has appropriate agricultural production content, farm business planning and farm management and succession plan content. Not all agricultural qualifications have appropriate content.
Teagasc has a schedule of charges in this regard and the charges for assessing equivalence for a qualification obtained outside of the Republic of Ireland amounts to €150.
