Cohabiting couples

If you are living with another adult and in a committed relationship with them, you are cohabiting. 

Revenue assess cohabiting couples as single individuals. If your relationship ends you may be able to claim tax relief in respect of maintenance payments and property transfers which you make to your former spouse. The payments and transfers you make must be as a result of a court order.

To be a qualifying cohabitant for these reliefs you must have been cohabiting for at least:

• two years if you are the parents of dependent children
• five years for all other cases.

Tax relief for a maintenance payment is only allowed for payments made for the support of the qualified cohabitant.

Property transfers

If you separate from a previous cohabitant, a court may order them to transfer property to you. If this is the case, you will not have to pay Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) or Stamp Duty.

If you transfer an asset under a court order to a person that you cohabited with previously, you will not have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) or Stamp Duty on the transfer.

If you receive an asset from a person you cohabited with previously and sell it at a later date, you will have to pay CGT. CGT is calculated on the basis that you owned the asset from the time you received it.

Mortgage Interest Tax Credit

You cannot claim the mortgage interest tax credit on loan repayments made in respect of the home of a former cohabitant.