Ireland CGT Guide 2025 — 33% Flat Rate & €1,270 Exemption

The rate and the exemption

Capital Gains Tax in Ireland is charged at a flat 33% on the chargeable gain — the disposal proceeds less the cost of acquisition, allowable enhancement expenditure and disposal costs. There is no banding: the same 33% applies whether the gain is €500 or €500,000, and it applies equally to residents and non-residents disposing of Irish assets such as land, buildings or unquoted shares deriving most of their value from Irish land.

Each individual has an annual exempt amount of €1,270 — the first €1,270 of net gains (gains after losses) in a tax year is not taxed. This exemption belongs to the individual: a married couple or civil partners each get their own €1,270, but it cannot be transferred between them, and unused exemption does not carry forward to the following year.

What counts as a disposal

A disposal happens whenever an asset is sold, given away, exchanged, or lost/destroyed with compensation received (including insurance proceeds). Gifts trigger CGT on the market value at the date of the gift even though no money changes hands — the most commonly missed trigger, since the person also has no cash from the transaction to fund the tax bill.

Exempt from CGT: transfers between spouses or civil partners; assets passing on death (though a personal representative can trigger CGT if they sell an asset during the administration of the estate, before it is distributed); private motor cars; government stocks; betting, lottery and prize bond winnings; and moveable property (furniture, for example) where the gain does not exceed €2,540.

Principal Private Residence (PPR) Relief

The gain on your home is exempt in full provided you occupied it as your only or main residence throughout your period of ownership. The exemption covers the house and its grounds up to one acre, excluding the site of the house itself. If you did not live in it for the whole period of ownership — you let it out for two of the ten years you owned it, for example — only the proportion of the gain relating to the years of occupation is exempt; the rest is chargeable in the normal way.

Revised Entrepreneur Relief

A reduced 10% rate applies to gains on the disposal of qualifying business assets, in place of the standard 33%, subject to a lifetime limit on qualifying gains. For disposals up to 31 December 2025 the lifetime limit is €1 million; Budget 2026 raises it to €1.5 million for qualifying disposals made on or after 1 January 2026. The relief requires the individual to have held at least 5% of the company's shares and been a director or employee working at least 50% of their time in a managerial or technical capacity for a continuous period of at least three of the five years before the disposal.

Worked example

Aoife bought a rental apartment for €220,000 (including €5,000 of stamp duty and legal fees) and sells it for €310,000, paying €6,000 in auctioneer and legal fees on the sale.

• Chargeable gain: €310,000 − €6,000 − €220,000 = €84,000
• Less annual exempt amount: €84,000 − €1,270 = €82,730
• CGT due: €82,730 × 33% = €27,300.90

If Aoife's husband owned the apartment jointly with her, each spouse's share of the gain (€42,000 before costs) uses their own separate €1,270 exemption, reducing the combined tax bill by an extra €1,270 × 33% ≈ €419 compared with one owner holding the whole gain.

Paying and filing

The tax year splits into two payment periods. For disposals in the initial period — 1 January to 30 November — CGT is due by 15 December of the same year. For disposals in the later period — the whole of December — CGT is due by 31 January of the following year. Regardless of when you paid, the CGT return (Form CG1 if you are not otherwise required to file an Income Tax return, or the CGT panel of Form 11) is due by 31 October of the year after the disposal, even in a year where reliefs or losses mean no tax is owed.

FAQ

Q: Can I offset a loss on one asset against a gain on another? A: Yes. Losses are set against gains in the same tax year first; any unused loss carries forward indefinitely to be set against future gains — but a loss can never be carried back.

Q: Does CGT apply to my PRSA or pension fund's growth? A: No. Gains inside an approved pension arrangement are not chargeable gains for CGT while they remain in the fund.

Q: I gifted shares to my adult child. Do I owe CGT on a gift? A: Yes, unless the disposal is between spouses or civil partners. CGT is charged on the market value at the date of the gift, not on any price actually paid.

Sources

Figures verified against Revenue guidance as of 30 July 2026:

• Revenue — "What is Capital Gains Tax?" and "What is exempt from CGT?" (33% rate, €1,270 annual exempt amount, spouse/civil-partner transfers, death transfers, €2,540 moveable-property exemption)
• Revenue — "When and how do you pay and file CGT?" (15 December initial-period deadline, 31 January later-period deadline, 31 October return-filing deadline)
• Revenue — "Principal Private Residence (PPR) Relief" (full/partial exemption test, one-acre grounds limit)
• Revenue — "Revised Entrepreneur Relief" (10% rate, €1 million lifetime limit to 31 December 2025)
• Revenue Budget 2026 Summary (lifetime limit rising to €1.5 million from 1 January 2026)