Real Estate Alliance

Tax Relief for Tenants

If you live in private rented accommodation in Ireland and pay income tax, you may be eligible for tax relief on part of your rent.

This tax saving can be up to €400 for a single person, double that if you are married (€800).  If you are over 55 these rates are doubled again (€800 and €1,600).

In order to claim tax relief, you must be paying rent for private rented accommodation which is used as your sole or main residence. This includes accommodation such as a bedsit, flat, apartment or house.

You cannot claim tax relief for rent paid as follows:

• To a local authority or a State Agency 
• Rent paid under a lease agreement for 50 years or more 
• Landlords living in Ireland. If your landlord is resident in Ireland, a receipt for rent you have paid must be provided if and when it is requested by Revenue. This rule applies regardless of whether you pay your rent directly to the landlord or to an agent on behalf of the landlord.

Each receipt must show the following:

• Landlord's name, PPS Number and address
• Amount of rent which you have paid 
• Period of time covered by the receipt

Landlords living outside Ireland
Special provisions exist where you are paying rent to a landlord who does not live in Ireland – if this applies to you see our additional article regarding Landlords living outside Ireland

Rates
Tax relief at the standard rate of 20% on private rented accommodation is available whether your landlord lives in Ireland or abroad. The amount of tax relief varies by year, but from 1 January 2009 tax relief on rent is as follows:

Aged under 55 years
Single Person: First €2,000 of rent paid at 20%, giving a tax credit of €400.
Married/Widowed:  First €4,000 of rent paid at 20%, giving a tax credit of €800.

Aged over 55 years
Single Person: First €4,000 of rent paid at 20%, giving a tax credit of €800.
Married/Widowed:  First €8,000 of rent paid at 20%, giving a tax credit of €1,600.

Some examples:
If you are 24, single and paying €500 rent each month for a year, you will have paid €6,000 in rent over the course of the year.
Rent Relief will be granted to you on the first €2,000 of the rent paid at 20%, which gives you a tax credit of  €400.

If you are 57, married and paying €600 rent each month for a year, you will also have paid €7,200 in rent over the course of the year.
Rent Relief will be granted to you on the first €8,000 of this at 20%.  But as you only paid €7,200 your tax relief is restricted to 20% of the amount paid, which gives a tax credit of €1,440.

How to apply
You can claim rent relief online or by completing a Form Rent 1 and sending it to your tax office.  You can also get your tax agent to claim this for you.
As well as claiming for the current year, the Rent Relief tax credit can still be claimed for each year going back to 2005 – the amount of the relief is different from year to year.