Around 400,000 tenants are eligible for the tax credit of €500, and this is set to increase to €750 for this year.
“I am advised by Revenue that, to date, over 130,000 claims for Rent Tax Credit have been made by PAYE taxpayers for the 2023 tax year,” Finance Minister Michael McGrath said.
“It is expected that the number of claims for 2023 will continue to increase, particularly in the first quarter of 2024, as PAYE taxpayers file their Income Tax Returns after the end of the year.”
The renter’s tax credit was increased to €750 as part of Budget 2024, or €1,500 per couple. It has been put in place until 2025.
Even though a significant number of taxpayers are owed unclaimed money back, they still have a number of years to claim the tax credits they are entitled to.
“Taxpayers have until December 31, 2026, to claim the Rent Tax Credit for 2022 and until December 31, 2027, to claim for 2023,” the minister said.
In addition, 140,000 tenants still have to claim the tax relief for the 2022 tax year, Revenue says.
Taxpayers can go back four years to file income tax returns if they have forgotten to do so in recent years.
Opposition politicians have often raised concerns that tenants are discouraged from claiming the tax back as they may have to provide the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) number under which the rented property is registered.
However, not all landlords may be registered and tenants may be afraid to ask them to do so for fear of being evicted, politicians have said.
Taxpayers can claim the money back for 2022 through filling in Revenue’s income tax return.
For 2023 onwards, it can also be claimed back through the Revenue Commissioners’ real-time credit facility on the “myaccount” online service. This means the money can be claimed back in real time.
Once eligible, the tax credit is paid out to renters who meet the criteria within a few days of claiming.
The latest figures were released to Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who said there was “slow take-up” because renters did not know how to go about claiming the relief.
She called it a “scattergun” approach from the Government and said the amount offered was not enough to cover Dublin rents.
“From its very introduction we called on Government to ensure ample information was available for renters to claim this credit. There’s no doubt in my mind that there’s a slow take-up because people simply don’t know how to go about it,” she said.
“The rent credit always represented paying lip service to renters. The amount doesn’t even cover half a month’s rent for anyone renting in Dublin.
“For too long, this Government has failed to take renters and their concerns seriously. Renters are not transient and they’re not just young. Renting is a crucial option for everyone in the housing system.
“Rather than addressing the core problem of supply, in tandem with improving renters’ protections in the market, the Government instead continues to apply a scattergun approach.”