Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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157. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of renters who have availed of the renters' tax credit in 2023, providing a breakdown by county; the average amount claimed, by county; and the total amount claimed to date in 2023. [40138/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 157 and 185 together.

The Rent Tax Credit, as provided for in section 473B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA 1997), was introduced by the Finance Act 2022 and may be claimed in respect of qualifying rent paid in 2022 and subsequent years to end-2025.

Tax refunds can be requested within four years after the end of the tax year to which the claim relates, so it is possible that eligible persons may not claim the Rent Tax Credit in respect of 2022 until 2026.

I am advised by Revenue that the Rent Tax Credit statistics currently available refer only to claims by PAYE taxpayers for the 2022 tax year and the 2023 tax year to-date. Data on claims by self-assessed taxpayers are not yet available as these taxpayers’ returns are generally submitted later in the year. The statutory filing date for the 2022 tax return for self-assessed taxpayers is 31 October 2023.

Claims in respect of the 2022 year of assessment can be made by PAYE taxpayers by submitting an Income Tax return for that year. For claims relating to 2023, PAYE taxpayers have the option of claiming the rent tax credit due to them either as rent is incurred or at the end of the year through their Income Tax return.

Rent Tax Credit claims are made are on a ‘taxpayer unit’ basis. A taxpayer unit is either an individual with any personal status who is singly assessed or a couple in a marriage or civil partnership who have elected for joint assessment.

I am further advised that as of 13 September 2023, over 286,419 Rent Tax Credit claims have been made by 252,317 taxpayer units consisting of:

(i) 202,982 taxpayer units that made claims for 2022 only,

(ii) 34,102 taxpayer units that made claims for both 2022 and 2023,

(iii) 15,233 taxpayer units that made claims for 2023 only,

The total amount of Rent Tax Credit claimed for the tax year 2022 to-date amounts to some €133m. In order to receive a taxable benefit in relation to the RTC, a taxpayer must have an Income Tax liability greater than the RTC claimed in order to offset against it. Therefore, in some cases, taxpayers may have claimed the full RTC amount but only had an income tax liability such that they received or offset a benefit of lesser amount. As a result, taxpayers have offset or received a taxable benefit of €113m regarding the RTC.

The total claimed to date for the tax year 2023 amounts to some €30m. However, a figure for the total amount offset against tax or received as a tax refund will not be available until after the end of the year.

Data for claims relating to PAYE taxpayers for tax years 2022 and 2023 are set out by county in the tables below.

Rent Tax Credit claims relating to tax year 2022 as at 13 September 2023

Rent Tax Credit claims relating to tax year 2023 as at 13 September 2023

In relation to Deputy Bruton's question on whether information has not reached all eligible persons, Revenue is conducting an information campaign to highlight the ease of use of the online myAccount system and to raise awareness of a range of key tax credits and reliefs available to taxpayers including the rent tax credit.