PART 2

Gift Tax

4. —A capital acquisitions tax, to be called gift tax and to be computed in accordance with this Act, shall, subject to this Act and any regulations made under the Act, be charged, levied and paid on the taxable value of every taxable gift taken by a donee.

5. —(1) For the purposes of this Act, a person is deemed to take a gift, where, under or in consequence of any disposition, a person becomes beneficially entitled in possession, otherwise than on a death, to any benefit (whether or not the person becoming so entitled already has any interest in the property in which such person takes such benefit), otherwise than for full consideration in money or money's worth paid by such person.

(2) A gift is deemed—

(a) to consist of the whole or the appropriate part, as the case may be, of the property in which the donee takes a benefit, or on which the benefit is charged or secured or on which the donee is entitled to have it charged or secured, and

(b) if the benefit is an annuity or other periodic payment which is not charged on or secured by any property and which the donee is not entitled to have so charged or secured, to consist of such sum as would, if invested on the date of the gift in the security of the Government which was issued last before that date for subscription in the State and is redeemable not less than 10 years after the date of issue, yield, on the basis of the current yield on the security, an annual income equivalent to the annual value of the annuity or of the other periodic payment receivable by the donee.

(3) For the purposes of section 6 (1)(c) and 6(2)(d), the sum referred to in subsection (2)(b) is deemed not to be situate in the State at the date of the gift.

(4) Where a person makes a disposition under which a relative of the person becomes beneficially entitled in possession to any benefit, the creation or disposition in favour of the person of an annuity or other interest limited to cease on the death, or at a time ascertainable only by reference to the death, of the person, shall not be treated for the purposes of this section as consideration for the grant of such benefit or of any part of such benefit.

(5) For the purposes of this Act, “appropriate part”, in relation to property referred to in subsection (2), means that part of the entire property in which the benefit subsists, or on which the benefit is charged or secured, or on which the donee is entitled to have it so charged or secured, which bears the same proportion to the entire property as the gross annual value of the benefit bears to the gross annual value of the entire property, and the gift shall be deemed to consist of the appropriate part of each and every item of property comprised in the entire property.

(6) (a) Where a contract or agreement was entered into, under or as a consequence of which a person acquired the right, otherwise than for full consideration in money or money's worth, to have a benefit transferred to that person, or to another in that person's right or on that person's behalf, and an act or acts is or are done, on or after that date, in pursuance of, or in performance or satisfaction, whether in whole or in part, of such contract or agreement, then the gift or inheritance, as the case may be, taken by or in right or on behalf of that person, is deemed to have been taken, not when the right was acquired, but either—

(i) when the benefit was transferred to that person or to another in that person's right or on that person's behalf, or

(ii) when that person or another in that person's right or on that person's behalf became beneficially entitled in possession to the benefit,

whichever is the later.

(b) In this subsection, a reference to a contract or agreement does not include a reference to a contract or agreement—

(i) which is a complete grant, transfer, assignment or conveyance, or

(ii) which was enforceable by action.

(7) (a) In paragraph (b), the expression “shares in a private company” shall be construed by reference to the meanings that “share” and “private company” have, respectively, in section 27 .

(b) Where a person becomes beneficially entitled in possession to a benefit, and the property in which the benefit is taken consists wholly or partly of shares in a private company and where the consideration referred to in subsection (1), being consideration in relation to a disposition, could not reasonably be regarded (taking into account the disponer's position prior to the disposition) as representing full consideration to the disponer for having made such a disposition, subsection (1) is deemed to apply as if “otherwise than for full consideration in money or money's worth paid by such person” were deleted in that subsection.

6. —(1) In relation to a gift taken under a disposition, where the date of the disposition is before 1 December 1999, “taxable gift” in this Act means—

(a) in the case of a gift, other than a gift taken under a discretionary trust, where the disponer is domiciled in the State at the date of the disposition under which the donee takes the gift, the whole of the gift,

(b) in the case of a gift taken under a discretionary trust where the disponer is domiciled in the State at the date of the disposition under which the donee takes the gift or at the date of the gift or was (in the case of a gift taken after that donee's death) so domiciled at the time of that donee's death, the whole of the gift, and

(c) in any other case, so much of the property of which the gift consists as is situate in the State at the date of the gift.

(2) In relation to a gift taken under a disposition, where the date of the disposition is on or after 1 December 1999, “taxable gift” in this Act means—

(a) in the case of a gift, other than a gift taken under a discretionary trust, where the disponer is resident or ordinarily resident in the State at the date of the disposition under which the donee takes the gift, the whole of the gift,

(b) in the case of a gift taken under a discretionary trust where the disponer is resident or ordinarily resident in the State at the date of the disposition under which the donee takes the gift or at the date of the gift or was (in the case of a gift taken after the death of the disponer) so resident or ordinarily resident at the date of that death, the whole of the gift,

(c) in the case where the donee is resident or ordinarily resident in the State at the date of the gift, the whole of the gift, and

(d) in any other case, so much of the property of which the gift consists as is situate in the State at the date of the gift.

(3) For the purposes of subsections (1)(c) and (2)(d), a right to the proceeds of sale of property is deemed to be situate in the State to the extent that such property is unsold and situate in the State.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (2), a person who is not domiciled in the State on a particular date is treated as not resident and not ordinarily resident in the State on that date unless—

(a) that date occurs on or after 1 December 2004,

(b) that person has been resident in the State for the 5 consecutive years of assessment immediately preceding the year of assessment in which that date falls, and

(c) that person is either resident or ordinarily resident in the State on that date.

(5) (a) In this subsection—

“company” and “share” have the same meaning as they have in section 27 ;

“company controlled by the donee” has the same meaning as is assigned to “company controlled by the donee or successor” by section 27 .

(b) For the purposes of subsection (2)(d), a proportion of the market value of any share in a private company incorporated outside the State which (after the taking of the gift) is a company controlled by the donee is deemed to be a sum situate in the State and is the amount determined by the following formula—

where

A is the market value of that share at the date of the gift ascertained under section 27 ,

B is the market value of all property in the beneficial ownership of that company which is situate in the State at the date of the gift, and

C is the total market value of all property in the beneficial ownership of that company at the date of the gift.

(c) Paragraph (b) shall not apply in a case where the disponer was domiciled outside the State at all times up to and including the date of the gift or, in the case of a gift taken after the death of the disponer, up to and including the date of that death or where the share in question is actually situate in the State at the date of the gift.

7. —The liability to gift tax in respect of a gift taken by persons as joint tenants is the same in all respects as if they took the gift as tenants in common in equal shares.

8. —(1) Where a donee takes a gift under a disposition made by a disponer (in this section referred to as the original disponer) and, within the period commencing 3 years before and ending 3 years after the date of that gift, the donee makes a disposition under which a second donee takes a gift and whether or not the second donee makes a disposition within the same period under which a third donee takes a gift, and so on, each donee is deemed to take a gift from the original disponer (and not from the immediate disponer under whose disposition the gift was taken); and a gift so deemed to be taken is deemed to be an inheritance (and not a gift) taken by the donee, as successor, from the original disponer if—

(a) the original disponer dies within 2 years after the date of the disposition made by that original disponer, and

(b) the date of the disposition was on or after 1 April 1975.

(2) This section shall not apply in the case of any disposition (in this subsection referred to as the first-mentioned disposition) in so far as no other disposition, which was connected in the manner described in subsection (1) with such first-mentioned disposition, was made with a view to enabling or facilitating the making of the first-mentioned disposition or the recoupment in any manner of the cost of such first-mentioned disposition.