Succession - better as a partnership or a joint herd no.

I'd say partnership is the way to go, easy to set up.

Just make sure you have a farm partnership bank account and everything bought and sold for the farm goes through it.

You might get young farmer payment as well

If you go the joint herd route with 3 names on it, the profits/loss of farm should be split 3 ways. This can result in higher tax liabilities overall, if the young person is in the top tax bracket. This has happened a few times with our clients. They went off and added the son/daughter to herd number without consulting us first.

If its a partnership for tax purposes only, you can split the percentages anyway that suits and change annually.

If its a registered partnership, a minimum of 20% must go to son/daughter.

You definitely need to be on herd number to get the young farmer top up grants. That's why some of clients done it.

The most basic partnership is just a Revenue one. Some husband and wife partnerships set ups this way. Not just farming. Gets the spouse paying PRSI and its a better use of tax bands etc.

But, the snag with a joint herd number, is the income is split evenly.

If applying for TAMS etc, you need a registered farm partnership. Ask Teagasc etc about this.

To set up a Revenue partnership, you first have to register for Income tax yourself. Your father's accountant will do that. Takes a few days. Then, ye apply for a partnership number.

This doesn't put you on the herd number. That's outside my area of expertise, but I think you need to contact your local DVO. If you want to apply for young farmer grants , you will need to do this. I assume this is the whole point of the exercise.

If applying for TAMS for young farmer stuff, you need to apply for a registered farm partnership. The deadline for this is early Feb sometime.

You will be required to submit a form 11 tax return annually with all your income for the year included. You can also claim tax relief on items such as medical expenses, medical insurance paid by employer, pension payments etc. Also, the rent tax credit etc can be claimed.

Dividends received on shares should be included. Capital gains if any should also be included. However, these should be included every year even if you weren't farming

There's a form you fill in to change from single herd number to partnership herd number. Think this took 2 weeks in our case. Teagasc were a great help to us. Solicitor did up partnership agreement. You can claim back accountants and solicitor fees less vat.