Mortgage Interest Relief

Tanabe

Hi Folks,

Don't know if this is in the correct thread but here goes:

I seem to remember from the 2007 budget that the mortgage interest relief for first time buyers who have taken out a mortgage within the last seven years is supposed to have doubled (for the first seven years of the mortgage). Is this correct?

If so, who does one contact in order to avail of such benefits? (I haven't seen my interest relief double since the budget)!

Thanks.

Idleater

The interest relief has doubled all right, and if you are in the TRS scheme (your lender can confirm this, as can the revenue (with ppsn) if you phone them). but you might not have enough of a mortgage to take "advantage".

You should also have recieved an "interest certificate" from your lender of the interest you paid in the last tax year.

As an example, if in the last year you paid €8000 in interest, and there were 2 people paying into the mortgage (and 2 TRS's), then you would have recieved full interest relief (23%) because the TRS allowance was €4000 per person.

Now, this year, you still are paying (or expect to pay) €8000 in interest because the values are roughly the same, but the TRS allowance has doubled from 4000 to 8000 per person.

You now can get relief on €16000, but you are only paying €8000 so you don't benifit at all.

You can get all the actual figures from your lender and Revenue. I had the exact same query as yourself because I didn't notice any difference either, but when I got all the figures, and had it explained to me it all made sense.

L.

Tanabe

Thanks for the reply.

It's mad to think that one might not have 'enough of a mortgage to take advantage' as you put it, but I can see what you mean. Obviously it's not just as straight-forward as 'your mortgage interest relief doubles from A to Ax2'.

I might just run it by the tax crowd next time I'm in there so as to make sure I'm getting what I'm entitled to and to have them explain it to me to be sure to be sure.