Financee paying rent

Hello,

I own a house in my own name. My girlfriend, now financee, is living with me in the house. She's paying me a 'rent' as she does not want to "live in the house for free". How should I declare the money I receive from her? Rent-a-room scheme seems to be the closest to the current situation as there is no legal status of a financee? We're getting married next year, but I don't think this matters for current tax returns.

Probably in the "rent a room" sphere if one's being pedantic but in reality I couldn't see Revenue drilling into this. Personally I wouldn't declare it as anything.

There was uproar last year at the prospect of adult children being assessed as having received a gift when staying with their parents. That was quelled by way of a Revenue briefing. There would be uproar if in circumstances where a couple live together in a property owned by one of them, Revenue looked to assess deemed gifts and deemed rental income for a contribution by the non-owner person.

You can obviously mitigate the risk of even ending up in a discussion with Revenue by (say) not having her send you funds by EFT with the narrative "rent" etc.