Renters will get €1k tax relief until end of 2023

RENTERS are set to receive €1,000 in tax relief from now to the end of 2023, under plans to be announced in today’s Budget.

Landlords are also in line for a bigger tax break on their pre-letting expenses, with the threshold set to be increased to €10,000.

Sources told the Mail last night that people renting will be able to claim €500 back this year and a further €500 in 2023, under plans signed off after hours of discussions between Coalition partners.

The measure will work in tandem with the tax measure for landlords, also agreed last night.

The relief on pre-letting expenses will allow landlords to claim a tax deduction of up to €10,000 – a doubling of the current figure – of expenses they incurred over 12 months before they let their property, on condition that their property has been vacant in that time.

The scheme was first introduced in 2017, with the tax relief initiative extended for three years as part of last year’s Budget.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said in recent weeks that he wanted to introduce measures in the Budget to incentivise ‘good landlords’ to stay in the system.

The Government also looks set to crack down on high levels of vacancy across Ireland, with the introduction of a vacant property tax. Other measures on the cards include a two-year extension of the controversial Help To Buy scheme.

The current scheme allows firsttime-buyers who are buying a newly built property, or building their own home, to receive a refund of the income tax and DIRT (deposit interest retention tax) that they have paid over the past four years.

While the measure has been

‘Calls for scheme to be scrapped’

strongly backed by Government, the Commission on Taxation and Welfare recently called for the scheme to be scrapped.

In its recommendations, the Commission advised the Government to allow the scheme to ‘expire as planned’ at the end of this year.

However, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar was highly critical of many of the Commission’s findings, describing them as being ‘straight out of the Sinn Féin manifesto’ earlier this month – including calls to let the Help to Buy end.

‘I don’t believe we should increase tax inheritance. I don’t believe we should tax agricultural land. And I don’t think we should end the Help to Buy scheme for first time buyers this year,’ the Fine Gael leader said.

The ESRI also previously warned that the scheme could push property prices up further.

A senior source from the Government last night told the Mail that first time buyers could ‘rest assured’ that the scheme would be extended.

Meanwhile, in a bid to raise revenue to fund the multi-billion euro mica redress scheme, builders will be hit with a construction levy set to be announced in today’s Budget.

The Mail understands that the levy, to be imposed on developers, is expected to bring in between