Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 May 2017
63. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Minister for Finance the progress of the working group on tax and fiscal treatment of rental accommodation providers; the number of times the group has met; the sectorial inputs it has received or requested, other than the public consultation; the timeline for the group to produce a final report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22405/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, the Strategy for the Rental Sector, published by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in December 2016, committed to the establishment of a working group in early 2017 to examine and report on the tax treatment of landlords (or rental accommodation providers), and to put forward options, where appropriate, for amendments to such treatment. This working group was set up in January 2017, is chaired by the Department of Finance and its membership consists of officials from the Tax and Economics Divisions of the Department of Finance; the Revenue Commissioners; the Housing Division of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (DHPCLG); and the Residential Tenancies Board.
As notified to the Deputy previously, there was an opportunity for all interested parties to engage with the Working Group as part of the targeted public consultation which was conducted over four weeks from Friday 10 March to Friday 7 April 2017. The consultation paper asked ten targeted questions which covered subjects such as mortgage interest relief, capital repayment relief, rental accommodation as a pension investment, the deductibility of various expenses, Capital Gains Tax, long-term tenancies, accidental landlords, the Rent-a-Room Scheme and vacant properties. Individuals had the option to answer any, all, or none of the questions, when making their submissions. The public consultation received almost 70 written submissions from a wide range of interested parties, including individual landlords, representative bodies and charitable organisations. A number of representatives from the sector were also invited to a meeting of the working group to discuss and present on relevant issues from their perspectives.
To date, the Working Group has met five times and a sixth meeting is scheduled for early next week. It is estimated that the report of the Working Group will be presented to me by the end of July 2017, to allow for consideration of any of the options put forward, as part of my deliberations for Budget 2018.
