The €70,000 ceiling on State aid relief in relation to certain agriculture tax measures is imposed by EU Commission Regulation (EU) No 702/2014 concerning state aid. This applies to all Member States and cannot be reviewed or amended unilaterally.
My Department has been advised by the Revenue Commissioners that, although this ceiling on State aid remains effective, they are currently revising their published guidance manual on the stamp duty element of the relief. This revision will confirm that, where a young trained farmer receives or buys farmland from certain relatives and is eligible for ‘consanguinity relief’, this relief can be applied before the young trained farmer relief on the transfer of the land. As consanguinity relief operates by charging a reduced 1% rate of stamp duty (instead of the usual 6% rate on farmland), the amount of relief calculated under that scheme (i.e. state aid granted) would be significantly reduced for many young trained farmers, thus ensuring that they do not breach the €70,000 ceiling as a result of the young trained farmer scheme.
Supporting young farmers and generational renewal continues to be a priority and will form an important part of the CAP post-2020. My Department and I are actively engaging with other Member States and the EU Commission on these issues during the current negotiations on the new CAP proposals.
