Re: property sale
CM's reading of the situation is correct - but with one caveat. Indexation relief is not available on any "development value" or "hope value" that land may have had when acquired.
e.g. If the £20K value of your land property in 1991 represented the normal going rate for agricultural land in its locality at the time, you can claim indexation on its full £20K value from 1991 to date.
However, if part of that 1991 valuation included an element of expectation of future gain based on a likelihood of it being commercially developed sometime in the future, then you cannot claim indexation relief on this element.
I'll give you an example.
If the property is 20 acres of agricultural land in the West of Ireland, a valuation of £20,000 (1,000 an acre) in 1991 would hardly be likely to include any material development value over what a farmer at the time would be expected to pay for similar land for agri purposes only.
Indexation relief would be expected to apply to this scenario.
However, if the property is a 0.5 acre site at the edge of a busy town, and was valued at £20K in 1991, this would probably indicate that almost all its value at that time was based on an expectation that it would be developed in the future.
In this case, indexation would probably not apply.
The indexation rate for a disposal in 2002 of a property acquired in the 1990/91 tax year is 1.376 and it is 1.341 if the year of acquisition was 1991/92.
If you are able to claim full indexation relief, it will save you about €1,800 on your CGT bill. If in doubt, you should get professional advice from an accountant or tax consultant before finalising your CGT return, after the property is sold.
Finally, once the Revenue are happy that the £20K valuation 1991 was not wildly understated (which it obviously wasn't if its worth €75K now), and once you haven't received siginficant gifts/inheritances from your parents previously, you should have nothing to worry about Capital Acquisition Tax on receiving the land in 1991.
Tommy
www.mcgibney.com