Practical Succession Planning - Irish Tax Considerations

Introduction

This webinar will outline practical Irish tax considerations for business and personal succession planning for retiring and remaining shareholders. It covers the tax framework, challenges, and strategies to ensure business continuity while minimising tax liabilities. It will also address common challenges faced during the process.

Various tax laws and reliefs, such as Capital Gains Tax (CGT) retirement relief and entrepreneur relief, are discussed. Practical tips for maximising these reliefs will be provided alongside case studies for retiring and remaining shareholders.

Expert speaker Mairead Hennessy will discuss practical strategies for ownership transfer, including gifting versus selling shares and using trusts, and will use case studies to illustrate family business succession, sale of business to third parties, and share buybacks.

This webinar is suitable for accountants, tax advisors, solicitors and financial planners.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Brief Overview of Succession Planning
• Key objectives - Ensuring business continuity, minimising tax liabilities, and avoiding disputes
• Common challenges in succession planning
• Legal and Tax Framework
• Overview of relevant tax laws and reliefs:
• Capital Gains Tax (CGT) - Retirement relief and entrepreneur relief
• Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) - Business property relief and agricultural relief
• Stamp Duty - Applicability and exemptions
• Key legal considerations:
• Shareholder agreements
• Wills and trusts in succession planning
• Tax Considerations for Retiring Shareholders
• CGT Retirement Relief:
• Conditions and thresholds
• Practical tips to maximise relief
• Case study - Retiring shareholder selling shares to children
• Entrepreneur Relief:
• 10% CGT rate on qualifying disposals
• Conditions and traps to avoid
• Case study - Sale of shares to a third party
• Income tax - Termination payment may be subject to income tax - exemptions may apply
• Pension planning:
• Consider maximising pension contributions before retirement to avail of tax relief
• Lump sums from pension funds may be tax-free up to certain limits
• Tax Considerations for Remaining Shareholders
• Share buybacks:
• Tax treatment of share buybacks
• Conditions for CGT treatment instead of income tax
• Case study - Resolving disputes through share buybacks
• Inheritance tax planning:
• CAT business property relief for remaining shareholders
• Structuring ownership to minimise CAT liabilities
• CGT Agricultural Relief
• Succession Farm Partnership Scheme: For farming businesses, this scheme provides tax incentives for transferring at least 80% of farm assets to a successor
• Stamp duty:
• Implications of transferring shares or assets
• Reliefs available for qualifying transactions
• Practical Succession Planning Strategies
• Structuring the transfer of ownership:
• Gifting vs. selling shares
• Use of trusts for tax-efficient transfers
• Family partnerships and their role in succession planning
• Case Studies and Practical Scenarios
• Family business succession:
• Retiring parent transferring shares to children
• Tax reliefs applied and pitfalls avoided
• Sale of business to a third party:
• Tax-efficient structuring of the sale
• Use of entrepreneur relief
• Dispute resolution:
• Share buyback to remove a dissenting shareholder
• Tax implications and practical considerations
• Post-death succession:
• Tax-efficient transfer of shares through a will
• Use of CAT business property relief

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Monday 1st September 2025

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 1,800+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.