(1)(a) In this section and in section 599―

["certificate" has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of Regulation 8(8)(c)(ii) of the European Communities (Milk Quota) Regulations 2000 (S.I. No. 94 of 2000) as amended or extended from time to time;]¹

"chargeable business asset" means an asset (including goodwill but not including shares or securities or other assets held as investments) which is, or is an interest in, an asset used for the purposes of farming, or a trade, profession, office or employment, carried on by―

(i) the individual,

(ii) the individual's family company, or

(iii) a company which is a member of a trading group of which the holding company is the individual's family company,

other than an asset on the disposal of which no gain accruing would be a chargeable gain;

"family company", in relation to an individual, means, subject to paragraph (b), a company the voting rights in which are―

(i) as to not less than 25 per cent, exercised by the individual, or

(ii) as to not less than 75 per cent, exercisable by the individual or a member of his or her family and, as to not less than 10 per cent, exercisable by the individual himself or herself;

"family", in relation to an individual, means the husband or wife of the individual, and a relative of the individual or of the individual's husband or wife, and "relative" means brother, sister, ancestor or lineal descendant;

"full-time working director" means a director required to devote substantially the whole of his or her time to the service of the company in a managerial or technical capacity;

"holding company" means a company whose business (disregarding any trade carried on by it) consists wholly or mainly of the holding of shares or securities of one or more companies which are its 75 per cent subsidiaries;

["milk production partnership" has the meaning assigned to it by the European Communities (Milk Quota) Regulations 2000 (S.I. No. 94 of 2000) as amended or extended from time to time;

"payment entitlement" has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003 of 29 September 2003 (OJ No. L270 of 21.10.2003, p. 1);]²

"qualifying assets", in relation to a disposal, includes―

[(i) the chargeable business assets of the individual which apart from tangible movable property he or she has owned for a period of not less than 10 years ending with the disposal and which have been his or her chargeable business assets throughout the period of 10 years ending with that disposal,]³

[(ii)(I) the shares or securities, which the individual has owned for a period of not less than 10 years ending with the disposal, being shares or securities of a relevant company that is a company―

(A) which has been a trading company, or a farming company, and the individual's family company, or

(B) which has been a member of a trading group, of which the holding company is the individual's family company,

during a period of not less than 10 years ending with the disposal and the individual has been a working director of the relevant company for a period of not less than 10 years during which period he or she has been a full-time working director of the relevant company for a period of not less than 5 years, and

(II) land, machinery or plant (if any) which the individual has owned for a period of not less than 10 years ending with the disposal, and which―

(A) was used throughout that period for the purposes of the relevant company, and

(B) is disposed of at the same time and to the same person as the shares or securities referred to in subparagraph (I),

[(iia) payment entitlements, where they are disposed of at the same time and to the same person as land to the extent that the land would support a claim to payment in respect of those payment entitlements,]⁴

(iii) land used for the purposes of farming carried on by the individual which he or she has owned and used for that purpose for a period of not less than 10 years ending with the transfer of an interest in that land for the purposes of complying with the terms of the Scheme, ...⁵

(iv) land which has been let by the individual at any time in the period of 5 years ending with the disposal, where―

(I) immediately before the time the land was first let in that period, the land was owned by the individual and used for the purposes of farming carried on by the individual for a period of not less than 10 years ending at that time, and

(II) the disposal is a disposal referred to in [section 652(5)(a), and]⁶]⁷

[(v) land which has been let by the individual at any time in the period of 15 years ending with the disposal where-

(I) immediately before the time the land was first let in that period of 15 years, the land was owned by the individual and used for the purposes of farming carried on by the individual for a period of not less than 10 years ending at that time, and

(II) the disposal is to a child (within the meaning of section 599) of the individual;]⁸

["the Scheme" means the scheme known as―

(i) the Scheme of Early Retirement From Farming introduced by the Minister for Agriculture and Food for the purpose of implementing Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2079/92 of June 1992 (O.J. No. L.215, of 30.7.92, p. 91), ...⁹

(ii) the Scheme of Early Retirement From Farming introduced by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development for the purpose of implementing Council Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 (O.J. No. L.160, of 26 June 1999, p. 80),]¹⁰ [or]¹¹

[(iii) the Scheme of Early Retirement From Farming introduced by the Minister for Agriculture and Food for the purpose of implementing Council Regulation (EC) No. 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 (OJ No. L277 of 21 October 2005, p. 1);]¹²

"trade", "farming", "profession", "office" and "employment" have the same meanings respectively as in the Income Tax Acts;

"trading company" means a company whose business consists wholly or mainly of the carrying on of one or more trades or professions;

"trading group" means a group of companies consisting of the holding company and its 75 per cent subsidiaries, the business of whose members taken together consists wholly or mainly of the carrying on of one or more trades or professions;

"75 per cent subsidiary" has the meaning assigned to it by section 9.

(b) For the purposes of the definition of "family company", where a company which is a holding company would not but for this paragraph be an individual's family company, but would be such a company if the individual had not at any time on or after the 6th day of April, 1987, and before the 6th day of April, 1990, disposed of shares in the company to a child (within the meaning of section 599) of the individual, the company shall be deemed to be the individual's family company.

(c) In this section, references to the disposal of the whole or part of an individual's qualifying assets include references to the disposal of the whole or part of the assets provided or held for the purposes of an office or employment by the individual exercising that office or employment.

(d) For the purposes of the definition of "qualifying assets", there shall be taken into account―

[(i)(I) the period of ownership of an asset by a spouse of an individual as if it were a period of ownership of the asset by the individual, and

(II) where a spouse of an individual has died, the period of use of an asset by the spouse as if it were a period of use of the asset by the individual,]¹³

(ii) where the chargeable business assets are new assets within the meaning of section 597, the period of ownership of the old assets as if it were a period of ownership of the new assets,

[(iia) the period for which an individual was a director or, as the case may be, a full-time working director of the following companies as if it were a period for which the individual was a director of a "relevant company" (which, for the purposes of this subparagraph, means a company referred to in paragraph (ii) of the definition of qualifying assets in subsection (1)(a)):

(I) a company that was treated as being the same company as the relevant company for the purposes of section 586,

(II) a company involved in the same scheme of reconstruction or amalgamation under section 587 with the relevant company,]¹⁴

[(iib) the period of use of land by an individual as a partner in a milk production partnership as if it were also a period of use by the spouse of the individual where the spouse―

(I) is a co-owner of the land,

(II) used the land for a period ending on the date the milk production partnership commenced, and

(III) was issued with a certificate by the Minister for Agriculture and Food,]¹⁵

(iii) where the qualifying assets are shares or securities in a family company to which section 600 applies, the period immediately before the transfer to the company of chargeable business assets during which those assets were owned by the individual as if it were a period of ownership of the individual of the qualifying assets or a period throughout which he or she was a full-time working director, as may be appropriate, and

(iv) a period immediately before the death of the spouse of the individual throughout which the deceased was a full-time working director as if it were a period throughout which the individual was a full-time working director.

(2)(a) Subject to this section, where an individual who has attained the age of 55 years disposes of the whole or part of his or her qualifying assets, then―

(i) if the amount or value of the consideration for the disposal does not exceed [€750,000]¹, relief shall be given in respect of the full amount of capital gains tax chargeable on any gain accruing on the disposal;

(ii) if the amount or value of the consideration for the disposal exceeds [€750,000]¹, the amount of capital gains tax chargeable on the gain accruing on the disposal shall not exceed 50 per cent of the difference between the amount of that consideration and [€750,000]¹.

(b) For the purposes of paragraph (a), the amount of capital gains tax chargeable in respect of the gain shall be the amount of tax which would not have been chargeable but for that gain.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), the consideration on the disposal of qualifying assets by the individual shall be aggregated, and nothing in this section shall affect the computation of gains accruing on the disposal of assets other than qualifying assets.

(3A) Where compensation has been received by a person under the scheme for compensation in respect of the decommissioning of fishing vessels implemented by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No. 1198/2006 of 27 July 2006 (OJ No. L223, 15 August 2006, p.1), relief under subsection (2) shall apply as if the period referred to in paragraph (i) of the definition of "qualifying assets" in subsection (1)(a) were 6 years and the age referred to in subsection (2) were 45 years.

(4) Where a disposal of qualifying assets includes a disposal of shares or securities of the individual's family company, the amount of the consideration to be taken into account for the purposes of subsection (2) in respect of those shares or securities shall be the proportion of the consideration for those shares or securities which is equal to―

(a) in a case where the individual's family company is not a holding company, the proportion which the part of the value of the company's chargeable assets at the time of the disposal which is attributable to the value of the company's chargeable business assets bears to the whole of that value, and

(b) in a case where the individual's family company is a holding company, the proportion which the part of the value of the chargeable assets of the trading group (excluding shares or securities of one member of the group held by another member of the group) at the time of the disposal which is attributable to the value of the chargeable business assets of the trading group bears to the whole of that value;

but nothing in this section shall affect liability on any gains calculated by reference to the balance of the consideration for the disposal of those shares or securities.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4), every asset shall be a chargeable asset except one on the disposal of which by the company or a member of the trading group, as the case may be, at the time of the disposal of the shares or securities, no gain accruing to the company or member of the trading group, as the case may be, would be a chargeable gain.

(6)(a) The total of the amounts of relief given under this section for any year of assessment and all years of assessment before such year shall not exceed such amount as would reduce the total amount of capital gains tax chargeable for all those years of assessment below the amount which would be chargeable if the disposals of qualifying assets had all been made in the year of assessment.

(b) Where at any time the relief given under this section exceeds the amount of relief which would be given if the disposals of qualifying assets for the year of assessment and all years of assessment before such year had been made in the year of assessment, any necessary adjustment may be made by means of assessment or additional assessment and such assessment may be made at any time not more than 10 years after the end of the year of assessment in which the last of such disposals is made.

(c) For the purposes of this subsection, a disposal of qualifying assets other than a disposal of the whole of such assets, by a husband to a wife or by a wife to a husband shall, notwithstanding section 1028(5), be taken into account at the market value of the assets.

(7) Subsection (2) shall apply where under section 583 an individual is treated as disposing of interests in shares or securities of his or her family company in consideration of a capital distribution from the company (not being a distribution consisting of chargeable business assets) in the course of dissolving or winding up the company as it applies where he or she disposes of shares or securities of the company.

(7A)(a) In this subsection "relevant payment" means a payment made by a company on the redemption, repayment or purchase of its own shares which, by virtue of section 176, is not treated as a distribution for the purposes of Chapter 2 of Part 6.

(b) Subsection (2) shall apply where an individual disposes of shares in his or her family company and receives a relevant payment in exchange for that disposal.

(8) This section shall not apply to a disposal of qualifying assets unless it is shown that the disposal is made for bona fide commercial reasons and does not form part of any arrangement or scheme of which the main purpose or one of the main purposes is the avoidance of liability to tax.