As part of the Government’s approach to dealing with the inflation crisis and rising rents in the rental market, the 2025 Budget has increased the rental tax credit for renters in the private sector, to €1,000 for a single person and €2,000 for a jointly assessed couple for 2024 and 2025. Those who are in receipt of other State housing supports such as HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) will not qualify.
Given the average rents currently, its not an enormous relief but its certainly worth claiming in your tax return.
The rent tax credit is available for the tax years 2022 to 2025 (inclusive) and the maximum value of the credit is:
If you are a qualifying tenant, make sure to make your claim in your personal tax return (Form 12 via my account or Form 11 on ROS). The 2023 Form 11 tax return is due by 31 October 2024, while the 2024 Form 11 can be filed next year.
For 2025 the credit may be claimed in your 2025 tax credit certificates and if filing a form 11, the details will need to be included therein also.
Remember to always check your tax credit cert to make sure it is correct, if you are not due the credit then you could end up owing it back to Revenue.
The credit is broadly available in 3 circumstances and different rules apply to each.
It can be claimed for rent payments made for a residence that is:
• The renting must be in Ireland.
• You can’t be related to the landlord as parent or child.
• In general, the landlord must be registered for PRTB (exception for rent-a-room type situations as long as you/child are not related to the landlord*)
• The landlord cannot be a Government Minister or a Commissioner of Public works who owns the property in an official capacity and is not a housing authority or housing association.
• Student must be under 23 at beginning of relevant year.
• Student must be in a third level college.
* related in this sense is other than parent or child, e.g. aunt, cousin, grandparent etc
The Revenue has provided lots of detail about the new Rental Tax Credit and you can read much more here.
Example:
Catriona, who is single, moves into rented accommodation on 1st May 2024. Her monthly rent is €800.
At the start of her tenancy, Catriona also paid an €800 security deposit, which will be returned to her when the tenancy ends. For the purposes of the rent tax credit, Catriona incurs qualifying payments of €6,400 (€800 x 8) during the 2024 tax year. Her €800 security deposit is disregarded for this purpose.
Catriona is entitled to the full tax credit of €1,000.
If her rent had been less than €5,000 then she would be entitled to 20% of the rent paid against her tax bill.
This article has been carefully prepared, but it has been written in general terms and should be seen as broad guidance only.
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