Rent a room scheme may be extended to all landlords.

Once again, probably wishful thinking but I do believe the politicians are looking to do something for landlords. However, the problem is it needs to be politically acceptable.
A scheme such as this (assuming the tax shelter did not suddenly drop to zero when the rental income surpassed €14,000) could be considered politically acceptable, as the mom and Pop, small time investors would have the greatest percentage of their rental income sheltered. Those landlords with multiple properties would have a much lower percentage of their total rental income sheltered.
It would also incentivise first time investors into the RIP market.
Once again, as per my previous post, I would consider this just a rebalancing of the inequalities against landlords over the last 20 odd years.
 
I had assumed the first 14000 to be tax-free even on multiple properties for the reasons given above
 
Easiest and probably fairest way is to give a tax free allowance per owner. The more properties you have you still only receive the same tax free allowance.

The idea from what I can gather is to try keep the "Mom and Pop" landlords in the sector. The vast majority own a single rental property. So give a tax break per person rather than per property.
 
The 14k rent a room tax break is too high and a joke. Who pays more than 1000 euro a month to rent a room ? Who’s policing it if someone has 2 or more rooms rented ? Answer = no one. It must be one of the biggest tax dodge situations in the country. The vast majority of room renters also pay utilities on top. Why should one landlord get a tax break of 14 k when the other is told they can’t raise rent beyond 2% per annum when we are supposedly members of a free market/EU . This is a joke of a country. The RPZ scheme is a mess and should be torn up as it is not equitable or fair on LLs who have put their life savings and or paid a BTL rate on a property with all the risks entailed.
 
Mamamia22 said:
The 14k rent a room tax break is too high and a joke. Who pays more than 1000 euro a month to rent a room ? Who’s policing it if someone has 2 or more rooms rented ? Answer = no one. It must be one of the biggest tax dodge situations in the country. The vast majority of room renters also pay utilities on top.
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It's perfectly legitimate to rent more than one room in one's home and charge for services and collect up to €14k tax free. There's nothing stopping landlords from availing of this relief in respect of their own home.
Sums arising to an individual in respect of the letting, for residential purposes, of a
room or rooms in her or his home, including sums related to the provision of meals
or other services supplied in connection with the letting, may be exempt from
income tax where they meet the conditions and are below the annual limit for the
tax year in question
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Mamamia22 said:
Why should one landlord get a tax break of 14 k when the other is told they can’t raise rent beyond 2% per annum when we are supposedly members of a free market/EU
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No idea what the EU has to do with this.

To answer your question; property owner (or tenant) J Soap is renting one or more rooms in their own home, where they live. J Soap can earn 14k per annum tax free. They are not subject to rent controls or RTB requirements. The tenants have the status of guests and can be asked to leave at any time.

Property owner J Bloggs has let out a property which is not their home, they do not live there. They cannot earn 14k per annum tax free; they are subject to RPZs, RTB etc. The tenants have indefinate rights of residency after 6 months.

I point this out as your post appears to indicate that you don't see the difference.
 
moneymakeover said:
According to that argument if all landlords sell up it's a good thing? Creating more supply for owner occupiers?
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You'll note that I didn't make that argument, but now that you brought it up, it clearly would be a good thing for aspirational owner-occupiers. At the same time of course it would be a disaster for those renting.

Applying a bodge to one sector shouldn't be looked at in isolation, too much incentivisation of one sector punishes the other.
 
Bronte said:
So get rid of landlords and there will be houses for all?
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Again, where did you get that from? That's almost the opposite of what I said.

The point was helping current landlords does little to increase the supply of houses.
 
landlord said:
but I would have thought over the last 20 odd years that it has generally been first time buyers that have been incentivised to buy at the expense of the landlord, reflecting the massive drop in rental stock.
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I don't believe there are any incentives for home buyers that have been introduced at the expense of landlords?
landlord said:
So a small amount of help to landlords at least would go someway to rebalance this inequality.
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How would you calculate equality?
 
moneymakeover said:
According to that argument if all landlords sell up it's a good thing? Creating more supply for owner occupiers?
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As someone who bought an ex rental (albeit in poor condition) at significantly less than what properties of its type typically get, yes, there's some of this, but not every cheaper property is being sold by an investor, and not all owner occupied homes get "full market value" due to being poorly maintained. The current status quo just does mean there is *slightly* less competition at lower end of the market than there typically would be if there was significant competition from investors. I recall Prof Michelle Norris talking about research on this but couldn't point you to the exact paper.
 
I see the difference. I also see the similarities. A landlord is a landlord. A tenant is a tenant. There is NO excuse to treat to treat them so differently with one scenario so advantageous over the other. The landlord renting out a whole property is significantly disadvantaged on multiple fronts. No tax break. PRTB, eviction scenarios and RPZ rent levels all loaded against them. The other can raise rent as they see fit, evict on the spot and pays no tax. Only in this joke of a country would such scenarios relating to rent exist in parallel.

Also how is it legitimate to rent more than one room and therefore likely exceed the 14k threshold and pay no tax ? It’s happening up and down the country and no tax regulations evolved to deal with it.
 
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Mamamia22 said:
Also how is it legitimate to rent more than one room and therefore likely exceed the 14k threshold and pay no tax ? It’s happening up and down the country and no tax regulations evolved to deal with it.
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Why would the tax regulations need to evolve? Tax evasion has been happening ever since taxes came into being.
 
Mamamia22 said:
Also how is it legitimate to rent more than one room and therefore likely exceed the 14k threshold and pay no tax ? It’s happening up and down the country and no tax regulations evolved to deal with it.
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If you have evidence of tax evasion Revenue would love to hear it.
 
Leo said:
If you have evidence of tax evasion Revenue would love to hear it.
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Revenue and the dogs on the street know the rent a room ceiling is being exceeded by many and there is not a lot they can — or want to — do about it.

In some cases, tenants with a lease are subletting additional rooms under rent a room. They are making more in rent than the owner can under a long term lease (under RPZ rules).

My opinion is the rental market is FUBAR and distorted in favour of rent a room rather than letting under long term lease with all it's regulations that do not apply to rent a room letting.
 
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ClubMan said:
Isn't that allowed?
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Without being too semantic, the answer is yes.

I can rent a house from you and you pay tax on the rent I pay you. I can have lodgers in the house up to €14k a year with no tax payable by me.

The tenant is merely obliged to inform the landlord of the extra residents but the landlord cannot forbid it AFAIK unless there is a health risk from overcrowding.
 
Luternau said:
Revenue and the dogs on the street know the rent a room ceiling is being exceeded by many and there is not a lot they can — or want to — do about it.
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Every law in the land is being broken, if the appropriate evidence is provided to the right authority then something might happen.
 
Not wishing to throw the post off subject. I had a RTB case taken against me my tenants "obliged" a so called friend of theirs to accommodate her while she was " looking " for a job. After 5 months she became disruptive for the tenants and would not leave. Guards were called etc. I never met this so called "tenant" and she or I never spoke. She done a land registry search and got my name and address. She sent a registered letter to me claiming right to a tenancy after 6 months.
She sent her version of events to RTB and without waiting to hear my side of the story RTB with their very obvious bias took a case against me.
While preparing my defense for an online hearing I got evidence of previous cases against her and spoke to a Landlord whom she had cost slightly over €50k.
The RTB should not have taken a case against me as I had submitted irrefutable evidence within days of being notified that a case was being taken against me.
I was just notified of a case being taken against me without any opportunity afforded to me to re butt her lies.
After that I have no faith in RTB. I won it okay but that does not and never will convince me about the impartiality of the RTB.
I am just making this post as a warning to people taking in "guests" to their property. Very few people looking for accommodation are troublesome but it only takes one to cause a lot of grief to an unsuspecting property owner. All this happened during covid.
 
Leo said:
Every law in the land is being broken, if the appropriate evidence is provided to the right authority then something might happen.
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Not to take this off topic how many crimes are reported and nothing happens. Recent Primetime interview with Gardai who had left the force because they did not have the right equipment to do the job.
 
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