Date of disposal for Irish CGT purposes

The Supreme Court has confirmed that the date of “disposal” for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) purposes is the date a binding contract is signed, unless that contract is expressly made conditional on a future event: Flaherty v Revenue Commissioners [2026] IESC 4.

Mr Flaherty sold his fishing vessel under an agreement dated 21 October 2015. He argued that because certain regulatory steps (licensing, registration, capacity assignment) were completed only in January 2016, the contract was “conditional” and the disposal occurred in 2016—allowing him to claim the lower 20% Revised Entrepreneur Relief.

The Supreme Court rejected this argument. It held that:

• The Agreement took effect as a binding contract on 21 October 2015.
• The regulatory steps were procedural requirements to complete the transfer, not conditions preventing a binding contract arising.
• There were no words in the Agreement making the sale “subject to” any regulatory approval.
• For s.542 TCA 1997, a contract is “conditional” only where no obligation to sell or buy arises at all until a specific condition is met. That was not the case here.

Accordingly, the Court has held that the “deemed disposal” occurred on 21 October 2015, placing the transaction in the 2015 tax year. As a result, Revised Entrepreneur Relief did not apply and the assessment was upheld.