Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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210. To ask the Minister for Finance the recourse an applicant for the home renovation initiative has if one of the contractors they have used refuses to register online even though they charged 13.5% VAT. [43436/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) is provided for in section 477B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.  As the Deputy will be aware, HRI provides a tax relief by way of an income tax credit on repair, renovation or improvement works on principal private residences or rental properties carried out by tax compliant contractors. A key element of obtaining relief is that the contractor must be a qualifying contractor for the purposes of the Incentive.  Revenue have advised me that where the contractor does not register as a qualifying contractor, then no relief is due to an individual under the Incentive.

I am also advised by Revenue that their guidance for homeowners includes material on ‘Choosing a HRI contractor’.  I understand that the guidance emphasises that it is important for a homeowner to check the Revenue system online to see that the details of works have been entered before the work commences.  The guidance states that if a contractor is not a qualifying contractor, he/she will not be able to enter the details on the Revenue online system and that the homeowner will not be able to claim the HRI tax credit. However, if the Deputy knows of a contractor who is not co-operating with an individual to allow them make a claim under HRI, he should provide the relevant details to Revenue.

Details on the operation of the HRI scheme are available on the Revenue website at www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/reliefs/hri/index.html.