You and the current owner absolutely need to get tax planning advice now.
Maybe get it from whoever suggested using the company to buy the properties?
I am not a tax expert, but this is my first run at what will probably happen.
1) If the company sells a property, the company will pay CGT on the gain. However, the net money is still inside the company so you won't be able to use it to pay CAT.
2) You will have to extract the cash from the company which will result in a tax hit for you.
Let's say, for example, that the figures are as follows:
Value of property €5m
Original cost of property: €2m.
If the company sells the property now, it will pay CGT of €1m.
So you have a company with
Cash €4m.
You will inherit a company with €4m cash and pay €1.3m in CAT.
If you wind up the company and distribute the cash, you will pay no further CGT as the proceeds will be the same as the price you acquired it at.
Brendan