dwelling house relief- selling house so what tax now?

G

galwaygirl99

Guest
Hi all
We've been living in our home in galway city for three years, and the in-laws transferred the house into my husbands name two months ago. We had been living in the house for over three years, and my in-laws dealt with everything through the family solicitor. They said they paid €20,00odd thousand in tax but is unsure what tax they paid (i.e CGT, CAT etc) I believe they claimed dwelling house relief.

Anyway, we have recently become pregnant, and were thinking of selling this house, and moving to a less expensive house outside the city. Ive phoned the tax office here in Galway, and they've advised me that because we claimed dwelling house relief, we are not able to sell this house for six years. If we do sell we would have to pay CATax on the difference between the price of the house we sell, and the price of the house we purchase. The tax officer was not able to tell me what amount/ percentage of tax that would be, or even if his advice was correct becasue (and I quote) "I'm new and dont really know that much about it."!!!

Can anyone tell me if the offical was correct? Would I pay CAT on the difference between the prices of the properties, or on the difference between the price of our property when it was transferred to us, and the price of the same property when we sell it?

Before anyone says anything, i've made an appointment with our tax account, but that's in four weeks time, and being pregnant now I'm hoping to get this all sorted out asap before we make up our minds about selling, or staying put for the time being.

thanks for reading!!!!
 
Re: dwelliong house relief- selling house so what tax now?

Do you know how much teh house was valued at when transferred? Also is the house in your joint names or in your husbands sole name?
 
hi
thanks for replying
i think the house was valued at 290,000...or 295. It was defiately under 300k
It was transferred solely into my husbands name
 
I think what happens is that they redo the CAT calculations using the new house valuation for the dwelling house relief instead of the original house valuation.

Eg originally the calculation was
value of gift ie house = 300K
less dwelling house relief -300K
= CAT liability = 0

You sell house and buy cheaper house say 250K
Value of gift = 300K
less dwelling house relief -250K
= value of CAT liability = 50K
less children's allowance -450K
= CAT liability =0

assuming that your husband has not received any othe(r gift from his parents since Dec 1991. If he has then its the cumulative values that are used.
 
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