Calls for a major inheritance tax cut in the budget will only benefit the wealthiest people in society, Shane Coleman has warned.

Cabinet this afternoon signed off on a Budget package of €8.3 billion before Finance Minister Jack Chambers published the Summer Economic Statement.

The annual statement outlines the parameters for the Budget which will take place a week earlier than normal this year on October 1st.

With this year’s budget expected to come just ahead of a general election, the focus has already turned to the potential for giveaways – with a major increase in the tax-free threshold for inheritance one of the options believed to be on the table.

Currently, a person may inherit up to €335,000 from a parent or, in certain circumstances, a grandparent tax-free, with any amount above that threshold taxed at 33%.

Fine Gael committed to increasing that threshold to €500,000 nearly a decade ago – and reports in recent weeks suggest both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are calling for it to be raised to €700,000.

"The wealthiest in society"

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Shane Coleman said the plan will only benefit the wealthy.

“I know I'd be in the minority on this but I think we need to broaden our tax base, not narrow it,” he said.

“The Commission on Taxation last year said we need to increase our tax to pay for it.

“We are demanding lots of things - free GP care, free contraception, lower third-level fees - and that's fine but you have to pay for it somehow.

“We don't have a wealth tax in this country.

“You can get €335,000 in inheritance tax-free [and] I think that is a huge amount of money.

“This affects a very small number of people – we know that the figures from the CSO show it. The median amount received in inheritance each year is €100,000, so, a third of what the limit is.

“This affects only 10% of people, who get more than €335,000 and they are the wealthiest in society.

“I don't think it's a huge amount to pay and I don't think we should cut it.”

"Double taxation"

Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said she fully supports the inheritance tax cut plans.

“I think it's a double taxation,” she said.

“I think you’re being taxed on your dead relative’s savings and I think it's quite galling.

“My dad, for example, was a PAYE worker and at times, when we were growing up, he would have had two jobs to try and, you know, pay for everything, in terms of the family.

“He was very hardworking and he saved - now, I didn't hit the €330,000 - but he saved, you know, his money to give to his kids.

“The idea that that income that he saved, which was already always taxed at the top rate - sometimes 55% - would be taxed again after he gives it to his kids, I just don't think it's right and I don't think it's fair.”

"Punitive"

She said inheritance tax doesn’t actually broaden the tax bases – but instead “just hits the same people again”.

“It hits the people who are working, the people who are saving and the people who are kind of being the best boys and girls in class,” she said.

“I think there's something punitive about it.”

Last week, former Fine Gael Justice Minister Alan Shatter said inheritance tax amounted to the State “randomly stealing money from bereaved families”.

There have been no changes to inheritance tax since 2019.