In contrast agricultural relief is brief and intelligible. There must be a strong argument if these relief's are to be continued with for scrapping business asset relief in its present form, and redrafting it from scratch along the model of agricultural relief. At present business asset relief is largely confined to trading assets in Ireland. In the global economy many Irish businesses have to have significant overseas presence in order to prosper. At a minimum, the relief should be available for business assets located in the EU or in states with which we have a double tax agreement.
Few people are aware of the sheer complexity of the way the thresholds operate.
The threshold in relation to gifts or inheritances from parents is 192,900. The threshold in relation to other relatives is 25,720. The threshold in relation to strangers in blood is 12,860. So far so good. But if you have received 12,860 of gifts from strangers, and then receive a gift or inheritance of 192,900 from your parents, you might imagine that you still have no tax to pay.