Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 7 September 2018
113. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance his plans to introduce an exemption from capital gains tax in cases in which a person or family move into a parent or other relative's home to act as carers and then seek to sell the original home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35823/18]
View answerAny gain made by an individual on the disposal or his/her dwelling house together with land occupied as its gardens or grounds up to an area (exclusive of the site of the residence) of one acre is exempt from capital gains tax.
For full relief to apply, the dwelling house must have been occupied by the individual as his/her principal private residence throughout his/her period of ownership of the house.
Where the house is not so occupied during the whole period of ownership, only the proportion of the gain applicable to the period of occupation is exempt. In this regard, the dwelling house is treated as having been so occupied for a period of up to a year after the cessation of occupation.
Therefore, in the case in which a person or family move into a parent or other relative’s home and then seek to sell the original home, an exemption from CGT will be available on the portion of the gain for the period in which the original home was the person’s only or main private residence.
