There are two Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reliefs that business owners, thinking of exit and/or retirement, need to know about. They are Retirement Relief and Entrepreneur Relief, and they can be used in conjunction with one another when exiting your business.
Retirement Relief
- There is no CGT on the sale of your farm or business to your child if you are over the age of 55. Following Budget 2025 changes, up to age 69 your relief is restricted to €10 million, and from age 70 onwards relief is restricted to €3 million. Relief is lost if your child disposes of the asset within six years.
- If the sale of your farm or business is not to your child, there is no CGT if you are over 55 and the disposal value is less than €750k (or less than €500k if you are 70 or older – another 2025 change).
- For more on Retirement Relief see further details here.
Entrepreneur Relief
- Entrepreneur Relief allows a discounted CGT rate of 10% on gains from the disposal of qualifying business assets, regardless of your age, up to a limit of €1 million.
- Your business must be currently trading and you must hold or have held at least 5% of the ordinary shares in the business for three years or have spent at least 50% of your working time in the business over the previous three years.
- For more on Entrepreneur Relief see further details here.
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