Law Society seeks urgent action from Government on stamp duty issues from Budget 2018

The Law Society of Ireland has written to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to set out “serious concerns” regarding stamp duty announcements in Budget 2018.

In a letter, Stuart Gilhooly, president of the Law Society, said “many solicitors” had contacted him and the Law Society to express “dismay and frustration” regarding the transitional arrangements set out in the Finance Bill 2017.

Under the transitional arrangements, the new 6 per cent rate of stamp duty on deeds transferring non-residential property does not apply to deeds where a binding contract was entered into before the 11 October 2017 and where the deed of assurance contains a particular Revenue-supplied statement/certificate and is executed before 1 January 2018.

However, Mr Gilhooly said “no provision appears to have been made for the above transitional arrangements in the ROS eStamping system” and the “advice from the Revenue Commissioners is that the purchasers in these cases must pay duty at 6 per and claim refunds afterwards”.

He said solicitors had been advised the refunds will not be made until after the Finance Bill has been enacted, which is not likely to be until late December, meaning refunds could be delayed until January 2018.

Mr Gilhooly called for the problem to be resolved “immediately through effective legislation” and offered to meet with Government officials.

The full letter sent to Mr Donohoe can be downloaded here.