Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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242. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of VAT paid on housing and apartment building products and services in Ireland in each of the past five years; and what percentage of the total cost of a home is VAT. [44001/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The VAT rating of goods and services is subject to the requirements of the EU VAT Directive with which Irish VAT law must comply. In general, the Directive provides that all goods and services are liable to VAT at the standard rate unless they fall within those listed in Annex III, in respect of which Member States may apply a lower rate. The Directive also allows for a Member State’s historic VAT treatment to be maintained under certain strict conditions.

In line with these rules, Ireland applies the reduced rate, currently 13.5%, to the supply of all property including residential housing, to construction services (including fixtures installed as part of a services contract, provided the goods cost no more than two-thirds of the contract price), and to ready-to-pour concrete and certain concrete blocks. In general, other building materials are liable to VAT at the standard rate.

Suppliers who are required to charge VAT on sales of new homes are generally entitled to full recovery of any VAT incurred in the development of that property, including for example VAT at the standard rate on building materials used. Generally, sales of second-hand homes are exempt from VAT, which means no VAT is charged on their sale and there is no recovery of VAT on any costs incurred in the sale of the property.

In keeping with the VAT Directive, lettings of residential property are exempt from VAT. This means a landlord who purchases or develops residential property for the purposes of leasing is not entitled to claim any VAT incurred on costs associated with the purchase and/or development of that property.

I am advised by Revenue that traders are not required to identify the VAT yield generated from the supply of specific goods or services on their periodic VAT returns. Therefore, the information provided on tax returns does not give Revenue the necessary data to provide the figures the Deputy is seeking regarding the VAT yield from the supply of all new housing and apartment building products and services.

However, using a combination of internal and third-party data sources, Revenue has made a tentative estimate of the VAT generated on the supply of new housing completions over the last five years and this is provided in the following table: