Revenue eBrief No. 247/24

24 September 2024

Rent Tax Credit

Tax and Duty Manual (TDM) Part 15-01-11A - Rent Tax Credit has been updated to reflect changes made to the Rent Tax Credit in Finance Act (No.2) 2023.  The changes include an increase in the value of the credit tax years of assessment 2024 and 2025, as well as a change in the eligibility of qualifying payments made by parents under tenancies that are not required to be registered with the RTB, such as rent a room or ‘digs’ arrangements, to facilitate their child’s attendance at or participation in an approved course (where there is no relationship to the landlord in respect of the claimant or child).  The TDM has been updated as follows to reflect these changes:

• Introduction and paragraph 6 - updated to reflect the increase in the credit for the for 2024 and 2025 tax years,
• Paragraph 5.3 and Appendix 1 - updated to reflect the change in respect of eligibility where a parent is paying rent for a child,
• Paragraph 7.3 - updated with reference to out of year and in year claims,
• Examples – updated to reflect changes arising from Finance Act (No.2) 2023.

A note has also been included in the manual to advise that Income Tax Returns for 2022 and 2023 may be used by taxpayers seeking to claim the rent tax credit in respect of payments made for digs or rent-a-room type arrangements to facilitate their child’s attendance at an approved course. As noted above, this change in eligibility, which was introduced by Finance (No.2) Act 2023, was applied retrospectively to tax years 2022 and 2023 and has not been reflected in all 2022 and 2023 Income Tax Returns.