Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 July 2022
161. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance the estimated cost to re-introduce a relief for rent credit as existed up to 2010 but without any age bands and available to all taxpayers at the standard rate of income tax for the following amounts of rent paid €2,000; €4,000 or €8,000 in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38666/22]
View answerThe previous tax relief in respect of rent paid, was abolished in Budget 2011, and it is no longer available to those that commenced renting for the first time from 8 December 2010. The ending of the relief followed a recommendation in the 2009 report by the Commission on Taxation that rent relief should be discontinued. The view of this independent commission was that, in the same manner in which mortgage interest relief increases the cost of housing, rent relief increases the cost of private rented accommodation.
At the time of its restriction, the rental tax relief cost the Exchequer up to €97m per annum. On certain assumptions, it is likely that the annual cost of the measures set in the details supplied out would be higher. However, I am advised by Revenue that it does not have sufficient data to calculate the estimated costs of the proposed measures, including the number of taxpayers who could avail of the relief, the amount of rent being paid by those taxpayers, and their individual capacities to absorb the various proposed credits.
