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

For the tax years 2022 and 2023, the maximum value of the credit is €1,000 per year in the case of a jointly assessed couple, and €500 in all other cases. I have brought forward a measure in this year’s Finance Bill that will further increase the value of this credit. Thus, following enactment of the Bill, the value of the credit for the 2024 and 2025 tax years will increase to a maximum of €1,500 for a jointly assessed couple and €750 in all other cases.

I am advised by Revenue that the Rent Tax Credit statistics currently available refer only to claims by PAYE taxpayers. Data on claims by self-assessed taxpayers is not yet available. Statistics covering all taxpayers will be available in Q2 2024.

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. As the Rent Tax Credit received by PAYE taxpayers depends on the total tax paid within the tax year, the full cost of the Rent Tax Credit for PAYE taxpayers in 2023 cannot be determined until after year-end.

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 15 November 2023, over 311,910 Rent Tax Credit claims have been made by 268,306 taxpayer units consisting of:

(i) 203,405 taxpayer units that made claims for 2022 only,

(ii) 43,604 taxpayer units that made claims for both 2022 and 2023,

(iii) 21,297 taxpayer units that made claims for 2023 only.

The total cost of Rent Tax Credit claimed for the tax year 2022 is €118.09m in respect of PAYE taxpayers.

Available 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 (RTC) claims relating to tax year 2022 as of 15 November 2023

Rent Tax Credit (RTC) claims relating to tax year 2023 as of 15 November 2023