Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Help to Buy scheme (HTB) assists first-time buyers with the deposit required to purchase or self-build a new house or apartment to live in as their home providing for a refund of Income Tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) paid by the applicant(s) over the previous four tax years. Eligibility of the applicant, together with the maximum potential relief available is determined at application stage, however, eligibility of the residence and actual relief due is confirmed at claim/verification stage.

It should be noted that applications for HTB may be made on a provisional basis as first-time buyers seek to clarify their entitlements in advance of commencing the purchase of a property. An application will only progress to the “claim” stage if and when the applicant decides to purchase a property that is eligible for the scheme. First-time buyers can submit their claim once a contract is signed for the purchase of a property. In the case of self-builds, the claim can be submitted after the draw-down of the first tranche of the mortgage.

I am advised by Revenue that annual statistics on the Help to Buy (HTB) scheme are available on the Revenue website at www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/tax-expenditures/htb/htb-yearly.aspx.

Revenue’s 2023 Annual HTB Report will shortly be available at this location.

In addition to this, monthly statistics are also available on the Revenue website at www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/tax-expenditures/htb/htb-monthly.aspx

I am further advised that, while HTB claimants are required to give details of the county in which the relevant property is located, they are not required to declare the specific local authority area. Therefore, Revenue does not have data from which to provide a breakdown by local authority area.

However, the statistics published on the Revenue website provide a county breakdown of HTB claims. As the county information is only captured once an application moves from application stage to claim stage, it is not possible to provide a county breakdown of applications that did not proceed to claim stage.

Applications that do not meet eligibility criteria, and, as a result, do not proceed to application approval stage, are not recorded on Revenue systems. The Deputy may also wish to note that applicants may apply and subsequently cancel their application multiple times in order to correct the application, for example, when amending from a single to joint application or including additional or fewer years. Furthermore, approved applications will automatically expire if the claim is not finalised on or before 31 December, for applications received between 1 January and 30 September, and on 31 March of the following year, for applications received between 1 October and 31 December.