Now may be an appropriate time to consider how the tax framework governing inheritance and gift taxes can be amended to simplify it and make it more efficient from a taxpayer perspective.
That is the view of the Tax Strategy Group (TSG) at the Department of Finance, which today published a paper looking at capital and savings taxes and stamp duty.
The TSG says the current regime for Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) has been in place for several decades and has been amended incrementally in the intervening period.
The Government has said recently that it will look at the current CAT system as part of its preparations for Budget 2025, amid calls for reform of it from some within Fine Gael and Fianna Fail who see it as unfair.
The report states that decreasing the current CAT rate of 33% by 1 percentage point would cost the exchequer €20m a year, rising to €60m for a 3% cut and €100m for a 5% reduction.
It also says that the Government could consider options to increase or decrease the three current CAT thresholds, or to move towards a single threshold.
"Increasing the Group B (currently €32,500) and C (currently €16,250) thresholds to bring them into line with the Group A threshold (currently €335,000) would be costly," it explains.
This is because a significant portion of the yield from gifts and inheritances arises from the Group B threshold, covering siblings and nieces and nephews.
Last year some €291m of the €634m in total receipts from CAT receipts came from Group B.
The paper outlines how increasing the current Group A threshold of €335,000, which covers inheritance and gifts to children, to €350,000 would cost €15m a year, or €52m if it rose to €400,000.
Increasing the Group B threshold from €32,500 to €33,000 would cost €2m a year, or €5m for a threshold of €34,000 and €9m for a threshold of €35,000.
The report does also explore the potential impact of decreasing the thresholds and finds, for example, that pushing the Group A one down to €280,000 would yield €59m extra year and lowering the Group B one to €25,000 would provide the exchequer with €28m more a year.
It also says the current requirement for individuals and their accountants or tax advisors to retain CAT records over a long period gives rise to data protection concerns.
The current record retention requirements also place a significant burden on taxpayers to retain detailed records over a long period of time, it says.
"To address this issue, one possible solution could be to provide in legislation that the receipt of any benefit that reduces the appropriate group threshold be reported to Revenue in a CAT return by the beneficiary," the TSG says.
"As Revenue would be in receipt of such returns the requirement for individual taxpayers to retain records for decades would be eliminated for any taxpayer who files such a return with Revenue," it adds.
"This could be further complemented by amending the legislation to specify that a beneficiary of the more significant exemptions and reliefs available under the CAT framework would be required to file a CAT return to notify Revenue that they have self-assessed that they are entitled to the relief or exemption in question," it states.
In relation to Capital Gains Tax (CGT), the report estimates that a 1% reduction in the rate of 33% would cost the exchequer around €74m in lost taxes a year, rising to €149m for a 2% decrease and €372m for a 5% cut.
"It is worth noting that any change in the headline CGT rate would also have an impact on overall corporation tax receipts from businesses paying tax on chargeable gains as part of their corporation tax liability," it adds. 
Regarding the CGT Relief On Disposal of Certain Land and Buildings, the TSG says the principal purpose of the relief was to help generate activity in the Irish real estate investment sector where there was little or no movement at the time.
"While there has undoubtedly been a significant improvement in both the volume and value of Irish property sales (land and buildings) in the intervening period, it is not possible to attribute a specific portion of that growth to the relief," it says.
"However, it is likely that the availability of the relief under section 604A TCA made a contribution to that growth," it adds.
During the committee stage of the Finance Bill, the Minister for Finance committed to examining the possible effect of this relief on the rental market as an incentive for landlords to exit the market.
The TSG says that while there is evidence of landlords leaving the market in recent years, "the available data does not indicate that this relief has been the driving force behind these developments."
In relation to Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT), the TSG paper says for every 2% reduction in the current rate, the cost to the exchequer in lost revenue would be €2m a year.
On the issue of stamp duty on residential properties, the analysis finds that increasing the current higher rate of 2% on any value over €1m to 3% on the same basis would yield €29m a year.
Reducing the threshold for the application of the higher stamp duty rate of 2% from €1m to €750,000 would yield €19m a year.
