Small Gift Exemption

In Ireland, any one individual can give a gift of €3,000 to any other person tax-free in any one calendar year. 2 Parents could give their child and their child’s spouse a total of €12,000 each year with no tax.

This is a very useful and tax-efficient strategy for passing assets onto the next generation(s) in a tax-efficient manner.

A couple with 3 children, all of whom are married and a total of 6 grand-children, could technically gift on €72,000 each year tax-free.

When our clients are engaging us for this type of inter-generational succession planning, one of the downsides clients often identify is that they do not wish to simply transfer cash to the recipient’s bank account, for fear of them squandering the funds. Furthermore, grandchildren under 18 cannot legally own assets directly. So we can advice on the establishment of a series of Investment Policies (Structured as a Bare Trust for those under 18) and transfers go directly into these investment polices for long term growth. This has the advantage of being both tax-efficient and having the funds out of instant reach of the beneficiaries.