Vol. 518 No. 2
83 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Finance the number of taxpayers who are currently declaring income from residential rental property; the number of properties concerned; the number of staff in the Revenue Commissioners who are allocated for monitoring this tax liability from landlords; his views on the adequacy of this level of staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11338/00]
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the latest relevant information available on rental income is in respect of the income tax year 1997-98 for individuals, and in respect of accounting periods ending in 1997-98 for companies. Some 49,715 individuals and 3,961 companies included rental income from lettings in their tax returns for that year. It is not possible to distinguish the type of property from which that income was derived or the number of properties involved. Rental properties are owned by individuals and companies from all vocational categories. Generally, rental income is only one of a number of sources of income of individuals and companies. However, the totality of taxpayers' liability from all sources is monitored by Revenue and, accordingly, staff are not separately allocated to moni toring the tax liability on rental income received by the landlord. In addition to the large number of staff examining tax returns in compliance and audit districts in Dublin and throughout the country, there is a complement of five staff in the special inquiry branch monitoring information on rental activity in the Dublin area.
I am further informed by Revenue that compliance in the rental income sector, generally, is governed by the principles underlying self-assessment. This means that the individual landlords, other than those with small rental income coded into their PAYE tax free allowances, are obliged to make annual returns of all income, including rental income, and to pay preliminary tax on 1 November of the tax year in which the rental income arises and are subject to Revenue audit for verification purposes. Information on rent payment and rent subsidies is cross-checked with the landlords' returns and returns are audited where appropriate. Landlords who have not made a return are targeted in the same way as other non-filers for appropriate action by the Revenue to ensure that the returns are made. I have been advised by Revenue that there is no evidence that compliance levels in the rental income sector are not comparable to compliance levels generally.
