TRS for married couple when one FTB, one not

W

WestBrit

Guest
Hi, quick question, haven't been able to find an answer in previous posts:

If a married couple, one FTB (year 1!) and one not, pay €15,000 interest a year, do they get relief on
- €7,500 each (capped at €3,000 for non-FTB, hence 10,500 total)
or
- use the available limits for each, i.e. 10,000 for FTB and 3,000 for non-FTB, hence 13,000 total
 
Option 1 - total of €10,500.

Relief works by giving each spouse the single persons relief (max €3,000 each).

The FTB spouse then gets 50% of addional relief they would have got if they were both FTB (€9,000 * 50% = €4,500)

Total relief = €3,000 + €3,000 + €4,500 = €10,500
 
I think mortgage interest relief is based on the amount of interest PAID by each buyer, so if the FTB pays most of the interest then they should be able to claim most of the relief. Revenue would assume that joint mortgages are split equally, but it may be possible to prove otherwise. Also note that FTB gets relief at 25% and non-FTB at 15% so quite a big difference.
Sybil
 
For a married couple assessed under joint assessment or seperated assessment the payments are deemed to be made 50:50 irrespective of which spouse makes the payments (S244(3)(b)(ii))
 
So are my workings correct below? Married couple, assessed jointly, one ftb, one not:
Total annual mortgage interest: 3,500
ftb @ 25%: 875
non-ftb @ 15%: 525
combined relief: 1400
Monthly relief: 116

Thanks.
 
Total interest is €3,500.

That is €1,750 each.

Relief is (€1,750 * 25%) + *€1,750 * 15%) = €700.

The above assumes this is the first year of relief.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't mean to question you El but are you 100% sure about your calculations? I called the Revenue the other day and the workings they were talking about were a bit confusing but gave me 10/13 of the total relief and my wife 3/13...your workings seems much easier to understand.
Thanks for your info.
 
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