Sir, – In his rush to argue for an increase in the threshold for an exemption from capital acquisitions tax, Neale Richmond ends up arguing for the threshold to remain as is through the simple statement that Ireland should be a country in which “work is valued” (“The Debate: Should inheritance tax be cut in the budget?”, Opinion & Analysis, July 9th).
Inheriting money or property is not a form of work. It is the very opposite. The owner of a house worth €600,000 may have worked hard to buy that property, but the person they intend to leave that property to did not.
What those supportive of an increase to the tax-free threshold on inheritance are arguing for is the obtaining of wealth through no work, but merely luck of birth.
It is also argued that an individual who inherits more than €335,000 in the form of a property is somehow hard done by when they may have to dispose of that asset and enjoy the outright profit that follows.
To take a common scenario of two adult children inheriting their parents’ house, one or both is likely to want to sell the property regardless of tax implications, as most adult siblings do not willingly choose to live together these days. The idea that they are suffering because they would have to pay some tax if they received more than €670,000 for the property is, quite frankly, laughable.
The current threshold for capital acquisitions tax is more than sufficient to ensure the squeezed middle can enjoy the fruits of their labour in life. It is, after all, the fruits of the labour of others we are talking about when inheritance enters the equation. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS HENEGHAN,
East Wall,
Dublin 3.