Revenue eBrief No. 171/25

11 September 2025

CAT Manual restructure

To make it easier for our staff and our customers to identify the guidance they need when considering the correct CAT treatment of a gift or inheritance, the CAT Manual has been completely restructured. The old CAT Manual has been replaced by two new manuals – the CAT Administration Manual and the CAT Manual.

The new CAT Administration Manual contains the following five documents, which were contained in the old CAT Manual.

• CAT Part 01 - Introduction to Capital Acquisitions Tax
• CAT Part 02 - Statement of Affairs (Probate) Form SA.2
• CAT Part 03 - The Self-Assessment Tax Return (Form IT38)
• CAT Part 04 - Certificates of Discharge
• Guide to Capital Acquisitions Tax Compliance Interventions

 No changes have been made to these documents.

The structure of the new CAT Manual, comprising 25 new documents, is aligned with the structure of the Capital Acquisitions Tax Consolidation Act 2003. The contents of these documents are taken directly from documents in the old CAT Manual, which are available to be viewed in Historic CAT Documents. Small changes have been made to some of the contents, to fit in with the structure of the new manual. For example, where appropriate, introductory text has been added to some of the contents, and cross-references have been updated. 

As part of the transition to the two new manuals, we will be updating links to the documents in the manuals over the coming weeks.

The below table lists the titles of the documents in the new CAT Manual and indicates the source of the guidance contained in each document.