The End Discrimination in Inheritance Tax campaign has said it is “really quite unacceptable” that Budget 2027 will not cut taxes for those who inherit from their aunts and uncles. 

Currently, people who inherit a large sum of money pay Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT); however, the amount varies depending on their relationship to the person who gifts it to them and the amount they inherit. 

Children can receive €400,000 from their parents tax free and any amount above that is taxed at 33%. 

People can also inherit up to €40,000 tax free from their brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles; any sum larger than that is also taxed at 33%. 

If you are not related to a person, they can inherit €20,000 before they become eligible to pay CAT. 

In recent weeks, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he is “very conscious” of those people who do not have children and do not like the idea of their nephews and nieces paying inheritance tax. 

However, the Department of Finance has since indicated equalising the tax free thresholds would be too expensive. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Brigid Timmon of End Discrimination in Inheritance Tax said the news had come as a “surprise” to the group. 

“The idea that it is off the table is really quite unacceptable at this point,” she said.

“Considering the whole emphasis on why this needs to change is to do with fundamental principles and those principles are to do with fairness.” 

Ms Timmon continued that the tax system should not treat people differently if they do not have children.  

“Any beneficiary who receives a legacy from an unrelated person has a tax bill [if they receive] over €20,000,” she said. 

“Whereas a child can receive a benefit for €400,000 without any tax being owed. 

“Now, the difference for us two is that being single and not having children is a fundamental right to all of us - it's a prerogative that we have.

“[And we are being] disadvantaged and made to pay a penalty.” 

Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers and Finance Minister Simon Harris. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Also on the programme, economist Barra Roantree of Trinity College said equalising the thresholds at which people pay CAT would be “exceptionally expensive”. 

“The document that the Department of Finance published yesterday showed that Revenue estimates, official estimates, that it would cost at least €350 million per year,” he said. 

“So, that's about the same as paying the Christmas bonus for pensions and social welfare payments.

“There just isn't scope to do that in the Budget; the Government outlined two days ago that it's going to spend about €1.5 billion in terms of tax measures, most of that, more than a billion, will go on just making sure that tax brackets and credits keep track with wage growth.”

 Main image: Hands of an pensioner holding a leather wallet. Picture by: Alamy.com.