The IT38 Box by Box: Filling Every Field for a Cash-and-Property Inheritance

For a typical inheritance of cash, the family home and some quoted shares, the IT38 walks you through eight numbered lines: enter the disponer and beneficiary (with PPSNs), tick the relationship group, list each benefit at its valuation-date value, claim any exemption, deduct prior gifts in the same group, and the form computes the tax at 33% above your threshold. This guide fills every field, line by line, with exact figures.

The IT38 is the Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) return you file with Revenue when you receive a gift or inheritance over the reporting limit. There are two versions: the short IT38S paper form and the full IT38 filed online through ROS or myAccount. Critically, the moment you want to claim a relief or exemption beyond the small gift exemption — and the dwelling-house exemption counts — you must file the full IT38 online. The IT38S is only for clean, single-disponer benefits with no reliefs (Revenue Form IT38S, conditions on page 1).

The box structure and the arithmetic are identical on both versions, so this walkthrough uses the lettered lines from the official IT38S (A through G), then shows where the online IT38 adds the relief and prior-benefit detail. Every threshold and rate below is verified against Revenue.ie for benefits taken on or after 2 October 2024.

The three blocks of the form

Whichever version you file, the IT38 is three blocks in sequence:

1. The people — beneficiary, filer (if an agent), and disponer, each with name, address and PPSN, plus the relationship/group code.
2. The benefits — each item of property, marked gift or inheritance, marked real property or other property, with a valuation date.
3. The self-assessed computation — lines A to G that net off exemptions and prior benefits and apply the threshold so the form arrives at the tax.

Block 1: Disponer, beneficiary, PPSNs and the group code

Beneficiary details (the person who received)

The form opens with you, the beneficiary: forename, surname, full address with Eircode, and your PPSN. The PPSN is mandatory — Revenue indexes the whole return against the beneficiary's PPSN, and the payslip at the back must carry the same PPSN and name. If you have never filed CAT before, you self-register for CAT in myAccount under Manage My Record › Tax Registrations before the return will accept (Revenue — how to file the IT38).

Filer details (only if an agent files)

If a solicitor or tax adviser files for you, their details and TAIN go here. If you file your own return, leave it blank — Box 1 is enough.

Disponer details (the person who gave / died)

Next is the disponer: forename, surname and PPSN. For an inheritance the disponer is the deceased. You also state the date of death here. Use the deceased's PPSN exactly as it appears on their estate paperwork — a wrong digit is the single most common reason a return bounces back.

The relationship that sets the group

You then tick the Group Threshold box — A, B or C. This is the most consequential field on the form, because it decides your tax-free amount. Revenue does not ask for a "relationship code" number on the IT38S; you select the group directly. The relationship maps as follows (verified against Revenue — CAT group thresholds):

The CAT rate on the excess above the threshold is 33% for all three groups (Revenue). A spouse or civil partner is fully exempt and does not file at all.

Block 2: Entering each benefit — cash, the family home, and quoted shares

On the online IT38 you add each item of property as a separate benefit line; on the IT38S you summarise them into the single "Taxable Value" figure on line A, but you should still value each item correctly first. For every item you mark whether it is a gift or an inheritance, and whether it is real property (land or buildings) or other property.

The valuation date — value everything at one date

Every benefit is valued at the valuation date, not the date of death. For an inheritance the valuation date is usually the date the personal representative can retain the property for the beneficiary — in practice the date the grant of probate issues for most estates. Cash, the house and the shares are all valued at that single date.

Cash

Enter the cash at its face value on the valuation date — bank balances, An Post savings, credit-union shares. No discount, no indexation. Whole euro only on the paper form (do not enter cent).

The family home

Enter the open-market value of the house at the valuation date — what it would fetch on a normal arm's-length sale, not the insurance value or the price paid decades ago. A formal valuation from an auctioneer or a chartered surveyor dated near the valuation date is what Revenue expects to see if it queries the return. This is a real-property benefit, so tick "Real Property".

Quoted shares

Quoted (listed) shares are valued at the quoted price on the valuation date. Revenue's long-standing rule for marketable securities is to take the lower of the two figures derived from the day's quotation: the "quarter-up" rule used for capital taxes — i.e. the lower buying price plus one-quarter of the difference between the lower and higher quoted prices. In practice for a small holding the day's closing/mid price is usually accepted; for a material holding take advice. Shares are "Other Property".

Block 2b: Claiming reliefs and exemptions inside the form

Small gift exemption — where it appears (line B)

The small gift exemption is €3,000 per donor per calendar year and applies to gifts only, never inheritances (Revenue — Small Gift Exemption). On the form it sits on line B of the computation, deducted straight off the taxable value. It is the one relief allowed on the short IT38S. In Aoife's case there is no gift, so line B is zero.

Dwelling-house exemption — claimed on the online IT38

The dwelling-house exemption removes the value of an inherited home from the charge entirely, if you meet the conditions. On the online IT38 you claim it against the house benefit so its taxable value drops to nil. The conditions for an inheritance taken on or after 25 December 2016 are (Revenue — Dwelling house exemption):

• You lived in the house as your only or main home for the 3 years immediately before the date of the inheritance;
• You do not own, or have an interest in, any other dwelling house at the date of the inheritance;
• You continue to occupy the house as your only or main home for 6 years after the inheritance (relaxed if you are aged 65 or over at the date of inheritance, or if you must leave for work, health or care reasons).

Aoife meets all three, so the €520,000 home is fully exempt and never enters her taxable value.

Block 3: Prior aggregable benefits — line E

CAT is cumulative. The prior aggregable benefits line (line E) is where you enter the total taxable value of every earlier gift or inheritance you took within the same group on or after 5 December 1991. Those earlier benefits eat into the same single lifetime threshold (Revenue — aggregation rules).

• Only benefits in the same group aggregate. A Group A inheritance from a parent is not reduced by a Group B gift you once had from an aunt.
• You enter each prior benefit's taxable value as it was then — you do not re-index it.
• On the online IT38 there is a dedicated prior-benefits schedule (disponer, date, group, taxable value); the form totals it into line E for you.

Aoife has no prior Group A benefits, so her line E is €0 and her full €400,000 threshold is available. If, say, she had received a €120,000 gift from her mother years earlier, that €120,000 would sit on line E and shrink her available threshold to €280,000.

The self-assessed tax computation — lines A to G

This is the engine of the form. Online, ROS/myAccount calculates it for you; on paper you fill it in yourself. The threshold (€400k / €40k / €20k) auto-applies through line D as soon as you have ticked the right group in Block 1 — you are not asked to type €400,000 anywhere, the form pulls it from the group code and the valuation date.

Aoife's net taxable benefit (€180,000) is below her available threshold (€400,000), so the taxable excess on line G is nil and no CAT is payable. But note: her cumulative Group A total of €180,000 is below the €320,000 reporting trigger, so strictly she is not even required to file on the cash and shares alone — yet because she is claiming the dwelling-house exemption on a €520,000 inheritance, she files the full IT38 to put that claim on record. Claiming a relief is itself a filing event.

Pay and file — the deadline that the valuation date sets

The deadline is driven by the valuation date, not the date of death:

Source: section 46 CATCA 2003, restated on IT38S page 3. Late filing triggers a surcharge plus daily interest, so put the 31 October date in your calendar the day the valuation date is fixed.