Expanding the Rent a Room Tax Relief Scheme

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Finance the estimated first and full year cost of increasing the rent a room tax relief scheme threshold by €1,000 intervals to €20,000.

REPLY



As the deputy may be aware, the numbers of those availing of the rent a room relief and the cost to the Exchequer can be found on the cost of tax expenditures report. The report can be located at the following link:

https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/tax-expenditures/costs-expenditures.aspx

I am advised by Revenue that it is not possible to estimate the costs for the changes to the rent a room scheme as suggested by the deputy.  In order to do so, Revenue would require knowledge of the number of potential claimants with rental income in excess of this amount. However, tax returns are only filed by those claiming under the current threshold and therefore no information is available to Revenue on the potential number of new claimants.