Media: Top 20 landlord's in Country get €5m in rent subsidy

The_Conductor

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/top-20-earning-landlords-get-5m-in-rent-subsidy-1.1641834



One landlord received €578,000 from the State in the form of rent supplement payments last year. Figures released to The Irish Times show the top 20 earning landlords received almost €5 million. Individual payments for these property owners ranged between €180,000 and €578,000 during 2012.

Separately, the department is also pursuing more than 700 landlords who have failed to declare their rent supplement earnings to the Revenue Commissioners.

Officials are pursuing these individuals who have not registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board.

Aideen Hayden, chairwoman of housing charity Threshold, said rents “are rising very significantly, particularly at the bottom end of the market”. Photograph: Bryan O’BrienHousing charity warns of looming crisis due to increasing cost of rental accommodation

Overall, tax compliance among landlords has been very high, with as many as 99 per cent declaring earnings.


Low incomes
Rent supplement – which costs the State €400 million annually – is typically paid to people on low incomes or on social welfare who cannot afford to pay the full cost of their rent, and is passed on to the property owner.

The income levels suggest some of the top 20 earning landlords received rent supplement in respect of up to 100 or more flats or houses.

The scale of payments has prompted calls for the Department of Social Protection to arrange deals with individual landlords, given that the State is providing them with significant sums of guaranteed rental income.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said there was no contractual relationship between the department and landlords, as tenants sourced their own accommodation.

To ensure value for money for the taxpayer, she added, the department had set maximum rent limits.

Despite these limits, housing groups report that many tenants are being asked to pay “top-up” payments to landlords for rent that is above the maximum allowance limit.

The housing charity Threshold says it has first-hand evidence that rent supplement reductions are causing homelessness.

Overall, latest figures show payments under the rent supplement scheme were made in respect of 138,700 tenancies to approximately 78,000 landlords during 2012.

The average payment to landlords was €5,400.

The economic downturn and a shortage in local authority accommodation has resulted in a surge in the number of people seeking rent supplement, although numbers have been falling.

The number of people in receipt of the payment peaked at almost 100,000 between 2010 and 2011. At that point expenditure on the scheme reached more than half a billion euro.

More recently, numbers have been falling due to a new, longer-term form of housing support – the housing assistance payment – and tougher eligibility conditions for rent supplement. Latest figures indicate about 84,000 are in receipt of rental assistance.

‘Poverty trap’
The rent supplement has often been criticised as a “poverty trap”, given that many recipients who take up full-time employment lose the entire payment, worth up to €475 per month.

Under the new housing assistance payment, recipients who take up full-time employment are able to retain the payment under reforms being planned by the Government.

Officials hope the move will prevent welfare dependency.

Under the changes, after a certain period a responsibility for the rental subsidy payment transfers from the Department of Social Protection to local authorities, which are then responsible for meeting housing needs through social housing or other means.

Thu, Jan 2, 2014, 06:06

First published: Thu, Jan 2, 2014, 01:00

The_Conductor

The study found over 99% tax compliance by landlords. Glad that its over 99% but it was a bit stupid of the 1% to not normalise their tax affairs- its a waiting game- but they will get caught out.

So- for all you renters out there who are certain your landlord is fiddling the books, at least in the case of landlord's in receipt of state rent subvention of one type or another, compliance is at over 99%.

Funny that over 99% are tax compliant- but only 82% (of the same individuals) are registered with the PRTB.............

markpb

I'd love to know where the 99% is coming from. That would indicate that revenue know precisely how many landlords are out there (or more precisely, we're out there in 2012). Revenue are good but they're not that good.

Carpet diem

99% probably includes those declaring a certain amount (while receiving the rest of the rent in cash)

ChRoMe

markpb wrote: »

I'd love to know where the 99% is coming from.

I think from thin air is the obvious answer to that.

murphaph

I believe tax compliance among landlords is higher than among certain "professions" where it's easier to under declare. Does your GP always give you a receipt for that €50? It's much harder and riskier to under declare rental income as the property itself can't be hidden and tenants generally have no reason to cover for their landlord.

However I don't believe it to be the case that 99% of landlords are fully tax compliant. That seems a touch overly optimistic to me as a fully tax compliant landlord.

As for the main thrust of the piece...well what do we expect in a country that has decided not to build enough social housing to house all those who can't afford to house themselves? Germany has almost no social housing with anyone in need being housed in the private sector with similar payments to rent supplement (but better organised with direct payments to landlords....something the article suggests is the case with the Irish system but which is not, hence the widespread refusal by landlords to take RS tenants).

The article paints a picture of landlords falling over themselves to get these payments from the taxpayer when in fact in most cases the opposite is true.

murphaph

ChRoMe wrote: »

I think from thin air is the obvious answer to that.

Like the rest of the piece. It suggests RS payments are guaranteed income when they absolutely are not. The author seems to think RS == RAS.

hfallada

The_Conductor wrote: »

The study found over 99% tax compliance by landlords. Glad that its over 99% but it was a bit stupid of the 1% to not normalise their tax affairs- its a waiting game- but they will get caught out.

So- for all you renters out there who are certain your landlord is fiddling the books, at least in the case of landlord's in receipt of state rent subvention of one type or another, compliance is at over 99%.

Funny that over 99% are tax compliant- but only 82% (of the same individuals) are registered with the PRTB.............

Maybe because landlords know the PRTB is a money making racket and serves little or no purpose. I have yet to hear a landlord ( and there is very few tenants) that have positive things to say about the prtb. Complaints take months to be processed which isn't good enough in a fast moving business like rentals. In some states in the us you can get a court order to evict an anti-social tenant within 24 hours. How many months would that take with the prtb?

L1011

murphaph wrote: »

Does your GP always give you a receipt for that €50?

I've seen more cases of receipts printed from Word or otherwise non-recorded than not given (having had 800+ GP customers in a previous job). Too many people ask for receipts for their own tax return, Revenue don't cross-check them - or even request them.

murphaph

MYOB wrote: »

I've seen more cases of receipts printed from Word or otherwise non-recorded than not given (having had 800+ GP customers in a previous job). Too many people ask for receipts for their own tax return, Revenue don't cross-check them - or even request them.

It is an interesting way that Revenue go about these things. They rely on a fear of audit. When I do my German tax return I must supply all my receipts in original. Different way of working. The German way is obviously more labour intensive as everyone's returns must be checked by hand. I'm not sure which way is better to be honest.

MouseTail

markpb wrote: »

I'd love to know where the 99% is coming from. That would indicate that revenue know precisely how many landlords are out there (or more precisely, we're out there in 2012). Revenue are good but they're not that good.

The survey is just of Landlords in receipt of RA, so its easy to see who is tax compliant from crosschecking DSP with Revenue stats.

Incredibly stupid of the non tax compliant to think they can get away with it.

murphaph

MouseTail wrote: »

The survey is just of Landlords in receipt of RA, so its easy to see who is tax compliant from crosschecking DSP with Revenue stats.

Incredibly stupid of the non tax compliant to think they can get away with it.

That would make sense alright. Accepting RS or being in the RAS and not being tax compliant would be monumentally stupid, so 99% compliance within this cohort is almost to be expected.

gaius c

I'd be curious to know just how many properties the half million fella has.

murphaph

gaius c wrote: »

I'd be curious to know just how many properties the half million fella has.

Why? It may not even be "a fella". Might be a company.

gaius c

Just curiosity and for that scale of business, yeah it's probably some form of company.

*Waits for the grand reveal to show a retired garda*

L1011

Could even be some form of social-but-not-council housing trust who take rent in a conventional manner. However there was a story about a 100+ property Household Charge return last year

Mrs OBumble

MYOB wrote: »

I've seen more cases of receipts printed from Word or otherwise non-recorded than not given (having had 800+ GP customers in a previous job). Too many people ask for receipts for their own tax return, Revenue don't cross-check them - or even request them.

They request 'em from a random sample.

Not sure how much checking is done, but I know there is some.






Frankly, the whole article reads like a slow-news-week space filler.