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Stamp Duty and leases

  1. Overview
  2. Residential houses and apartments
  3. Agreements, assignments and surrenders
  4. Difference between a lease and a licence
  5. Rates
  6. Paying Stamp Duty on residential leases
  7. Varying a lease
  8. Transitional arrangements

Agreements, assignments and surrenders

Agreement for lease

Instead of executing (signing, sealing or both) a lease, you may execute an agreement for lease. An agreement for lease sets out the terms that would be included in a lease.

You pay Stamp Duty if the agreement is for:

  • a period no longer than 35 years, or for an indefinite period
  • any period over 35 years where you have paid 25% or more of the consideration in the agreement.

You pay Stamp Duty on the consideration and period set out in the agreement.

Note

If the agreement is for a lease of a residential house or apartment, the annual rent must be at least €40,000. If you executed the agreement before 25 December 2017 the annual rent is €30,000.

Assignment of a lease

Leases are between a landlord and tenant.

If a tenant assigns (transfers) the lease to another person, Stamp Duty must be paid on the assignment. You treat an assignment the same way as a purchase of property.

  • Example

    Mary leases the premises in which she conducts her accountancy business from John. She entered into the lease in 2015. The period of the lease is 20 years. She pays €10,000 in rent each year.

    Her business is doing well and she needs to move to a bigger premises. Tom agrees to pay Mary market value, that is, €20,000 to take over the lease.

    The instrument (usually called a Deed of Assignment) to transfer the lease is executed on 2 February 2019. Tom pays Stamp Duty on this Deed. He pays Stamp Duty on €20,000. The Stamp Duty rate is the rate applicable to transfers of non-residential property.

    Once the lease is assigned to Tom, Tom takes over all the obligations in the lease, for example, to pay rent to the landlord.

Surrender of a lease

A surrender of a lease is not the same as an assignment of a lease. Once you surrender your lease to the landlord it ceases to exist.

For further information, please see Exchanges, partitions, releases and surrenders.

Next: Difference between a lease and a licence

Published: 27 July 2023 Print this page

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