The Irish Revenue has issued eBriefs 251/25 and 252/25, introducing a new stamp duty exemption for qualifying transfers of stocks and marketable securities from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030, and updating guidance on other stamp duty rules under the Finance Act 2025.
On 30 December 2025, the Irish Revenue issued eBrief No. 251/25, introducing a new stamp duty exemption for certain transfers of stocks and marketable securities. The exemption applies to qualifying transfers made between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2030. On the same day, Revenue also released eBrief No. 252/25, which outlines various other updates to stamp duty rules.
Revenue eBrief No. 251/25
Stamp Duty – Market cap exemption
Finance Act 2025 provided for the introduction of a new exemption from Stamp Duty on certain transfers of stocks and marketable securities (“relevant securities”), which is provided for by section 86B of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999.
A transfer of relevant securities will qualify for the exemption if:
- at the date of execution of the transfer, the relevant securities are admitted to trading to a regulated market, a multilateral trading facility (MTF) or a market outside the European Union which is equivalent to a regulated market or MTF,
- the closing market capitalisation of the entity that issued the relevant securities was less than EUR 1 billion as of 1 December in the previous year, and
- The transfer is executed during an exemption period, the start and end dates of which are determined by when a valid notification in respect of the market capitalisation was made to Revenue.
Where the relevant securities were admitted to trading after 1 December of the previous year, the exemption may still apply if the expected market capitalisation of the issuer upon admission to trading of the relevant securities was under EUR 1 billion.
The exemption will apply to a transfer of relevant securities executed between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2030, where the qualifying conditions are met.
Revenue eBrief No. 252/25
Stamp Duty Manual updated
The following documents in the Stamp Duty Manual have been updated to reflect certain amendments to the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act (SDCA) 1999 by Finance Act 2025:
- Part 5: Provisions applicable to particular instruments: Sections 31A, 31B and 50A SDCA were amended to provide that the chargeable instrument referred to in those sections, i.e. the contract or agreement for sale (section 31A), licence agreement (section 31B) or agreement for a lease (section 50A), will be deemed to be executed on the date on which the instrument becomes chargeable with Stamp Duty under those sections, i.e. the date on which the 25% payment threshold is reached.
- Part 5: Section 31E: Stamp duty on certain acquisitions of residential property: Section 31E SDCA provides for a higher rate of duty to apply where a person acquires 10 or more individual residential units during any 12-month period. Section 31E(2) was amended to clarify that where a contract or agreement for sale referred to in section 31A or an agreement for a lease referred to in section 50A comes within scope of section 31E, the date of acquisition of the residential property concerned will be the date on which the chargeable instrument is deemed to be executed in accordance with section 31A or 50A, as the case may be.
- Part 7: Exemptions and reliefs from stamp duty has been updated to reflect Finance Act 2025 changes and to include additional guidance on the application of section 83B SDCA “Certain family farm transfers”.
- Part 9: Levies: has been updated to reflect Finance Act 2025 changes to section 125C and 126AB. It has also been updated to reflect that guidance on sections 123B, 123D and 124 SDCA is now contained in Stamp Duty Manual Part 9: Sections 123B, 124 and 123D – Levies on financial cards and bills of exchange.
- Part 9 – Section125A – Levy on authorised insurers: Section 125A SDCA provides for Stamp Duty to be levied on certain health insurance contracts entered into between health insurers and their customers. The guidance document has been updated to include the changes to the specified rates as introduced by the Health Insurance (Amendment) Act 2025 and to note that more detailed guidance on Fthe inance Act 2025 changes to section 125A, which are to come into operation on 1 April 2027, will be issued at a later date.
Section 126AB: Further levy on certain financial institutions: Section 126AB SDCA provides for a Stamp Duty to be levied on certain financial institutions. The guidance document has been updated to reflect the Finance Act 2025 extension of the levy to the year 2026. For the year 2026, the levy will be applied at the rate of 0.1025% on the value of deposits held by each bank on 31 December 2024, to the extent that such deposits are “eligible deposits” within the meaning of the European Union (Deposit Guarantee Schemes) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 516 of 2015).
