Non-Resident Landlord Withholding Tax (NLWT)
Collection agents
Under the Non-Resident Landlord Withholding Tax (NLWT) system, a collection agent must:
- be in receipt of rent from tenants
- and
- withhold and remit 20% of the rent payments to Revenue, and submit this with a Rental Notification (RN) in the NLWT system.
If you, as a non-resident landlord, engage the services of a collection agent, they must:
Making Rental Notifications
Upon receiving a rental payment, the collection agent must:
- submit an RN to Revenue
- and
- remit 20% of that rent payment to Revenue.
As a collection agent, there are three options to submit an RN. These are:
- a single RN input
- a repeat RN set up at monthly intervals
- or
- a bulk upload of RNs through a CSV file.
In order for a collection agent to submit RNs, certain information from their non-resident landlord is required. The information necessary is the:
- landlord's name and address
- property's Local Property Tax (LPT)
- and
- landlord's Tax Reference Number (TRN) and tax type.
The tax type will be Income Tax for individuals or Corporation Tax for companies. Value-Added Tax (VAT) can also be used if the non-resident landlord is registered for it in the State.
Full details of information, and all three options, are provided in the NLWT TDM, including the information below.
Bulk upload of Rental Notifications
Batch uploads of RNs can be completed by uploading a CSV file.
Setting up repeat Rental Notifications
The NLWT system provides a facility for collection agents to set up a repeat RN. This process creates an instruction to generate an RN at monthly intervals. The instruction allows for payment or remittance of the deduction from the bank account provided.
The system provides for monthly intervals between RNs with the first debit date being at least eight days in the future.
Searching Rental Notifications
Search and report facilities are available in Revenue Online Service (ROS) for collection agents. Collection agents can also calculate the NLWT deducted for all RNs submitted in a period using the search functionality.
Amending Rental Notifications
Collection agents can amend an RN by selecting the RN within the search functionality. Collection agents can then, within certain restrictions, amend some, or all, of the fields of an RN. If a collection agent wants to delete an existing RN, they will need to change the payment amount to zero.
Generating acknowledgements (PDFs of RNs)
An option is available to generate a 'Rental Notification Acknowledgement' PDF for each:
- individual RN submitted
- or
- group of RNs submitted.
Collection agents can give the PDF acknowledgement of the RN to their non-resident landlord as a record of tax deducted.
Non-resident landlord annual return
Under NLWT, you must submit an Income Tax Return (Form 11) or Corporation Tax Return (CT1) for all of your income. This includes your rental income. Previously, your collection agent was the chargeable person for your rental income.
A collection agent experienced in submitting annual returns may wish to become a tax agent. A tax agent is distinct from a collection agent in that a tax agent can submit an annual return on behalf of their client.
In order to file an annual return on behalf of their client, a collection agent should:
Next: Tenants