Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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51. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost to the Exchequer of section 23 tax relief given as a deduction from rental income each year since its inception in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33104/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that the annual cost to the Exchequer of Section 23 tax relief for 2004 to 2014, the latest year for which data are available, are included in their 'Costs of Tax Expenditures (Credits, Allowances and Reliefs)' table located on their web page at , the relevant row in the table is titled "Rented Residential Relief - Section 23".

The Section 23 tax costs show the estimated tax cost relating to the total allowable expenditure in respect of the claims made.  Under Section 23, the full amount of the relief must be deducted from the rental income of the particular property in the first year of letting, so the tax cost is shown by the year the claim was first made, despite the potential carry forward which applied to this measure.

The cost is shown for Income Tax cases only. It should be noted that for 2003 and earlier years, claims for incentive schemes on property were aggregated in tax returns with other claims and could not be distinguished from other reliefs available. Accordingly the Section 23 data for 2003 and earlier years are not available.