I am retired with 200,000 on deposit in an Irish bank. My daughter has a 20-year mortgage of 175,000 and can't afford the repayments. I would like to lend her the money to pay off her mortgage and let her repay me at about 3% interest instead of 6%. Can I do this without problem of gift tax - I would of course pay tax on any interest?
Look up revenue.ie
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/cat/guide/free-property-loans.html
Not sure what the "commercial rate of interest" will be in your case, 6% that your daughter is paying or something else set up by the Revenue, but basically the difference between what her repayments would have been at "commercial rate" (let's say 6%, but not sure) and the actual rate you'll be charging her (3%), will be considered a gift for tax purposes.
However, if your daughter has not received any gifts in excess of 3,000 euro per year per donor from anyone, then gift tax will not be payable for a long time, as there is a high threshold for gifts/inheritances from parents, below which no tax is payable.
Also first 3,000 euro per year are exempt from gift/inheritance tax, so if this amount falls below 3,000, this annual "gift" will not count towards reducing the remaining threshold for tax-free gifts/inheritances.
If the amount is above 3,000 euro per year, then only the excess above 3,000 will count towards reducing the tax-free threshold.
If you could give your daughter the loan half to her and half to her husband, if she is married, then the amount of annual "gift" that is exempt from tax will double from 3000 to 6000.
The same effect can be achieved if the daughter receives the low-interest loan from both parents rather than from just one.
I think your daughter will lose mortgage interest relief, if she still gets it, as it's probably not available on loans from parents. So this is something to consider. It might be better to just help her by 3,000 euro per year (which will not count towards reducing inheritance threshold) until her relief runs out.