The Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan today published the Finance No. 3 Bill 2011. This bill will change tax legislation affected by the passage of Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. These matters were omitted from the Finance Bill published at the beginning of the year before the collapse of the previous government and the opposition at the time committed to introducing the required legislation as soon as they could upon election.
The Bill will allow registered civil partners to receive the same tax treatment as married couples in respect of income tax, stamp duty, capital acquisitions tax, capital gains tax and VAT.In addition, the Bill allows for the taxation consequences of the redress scheme for opposite-sex and same-sex cohabiting couples provided for in the 2010 Act.On publication of the Bill, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan T.D., said:“The previous Government committed to introducing the changes to tax legislation to implement the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. This was not possible during their term of office due to the early general election but I am now publishing the Finance (No. 3) Bill 2011.This Bill was published separately from the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2011 as it implements changes that go right through the tax system and will require detailed consideration.”
“GLEN strongly welcomes the publication by the Government of the Finance Bill. This is a critically important development for civil partners. It provides important certainty and security for the many same-sex couples who have registered or are planning to register their civil partnerships” said Kieran Rose, Chair of GLEN.
The Bill also provides that a child whose parent is in a civil partnership will be treated the same, for tax purposes, as a child of a married couple. This means, for example, that children of civil partners will be treated the same for inheritance tax as children of a married couple.
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