Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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138. To ask the Minister for Finance if payments made under the rental accommodation scheme or rent supplement are regarded as income for tax purposes. [26712/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that payments of rent by local authorities to landlords on behalf of tenants under the terms of the rental accommodation scheme are charged to tax in the hands of the landlord in the same manner as any other rent they might receive.

Rent supplement is paid where an individual living in private rented accommodation cannot afford to pay the rent payable under the terms of the letting arrangement from their own resources. The fact that the rent payable to the landlord might be partially funded out of rent supplement does not impact on the landlord's tax position, which is that the rent payable under the letting arrangement is also charged to tax in the same manner as any other rent they might receive.

Finally, I would add that from the perspective of a tenant for whom a local authority pays rent under the rental accommodation scheme or who is in receipt of rent supplement from the Department of Social Protection, such payments are not regarded as taxable in their hands.