Partner and rent a room relief

Eire Go Brach

My partner and I live together. We are not married. I own the apartment. She pays for half of the bills including the mortgage.

I am just wondering can she claim rent relief tax for the mortgage.
For me It would be the rent a room scheme.

I found this on citizens information.

"Exclusions from rent-a-room relief

You will not qualify for the relief if:

Your gross income from rent and related services is over €10,000. In this case, your rental income minus allowable expenses will be treated by Revenue as part of your total income for tax purposes and should be included in your tax return.
You are renting the room in your home to your son or daughter (but there is no restriction in the case of other family members)
You are an employee or office-holder in a company, and the company pays you to allow clients to use the room in your home on an occasional basis"


Is there anyone else doing it and the revenue know? I plan on ringing them Monday.

Mr. Incognito

She cant claim a tax rental credit. It was abolished in 2010.

Rent a room relief applies to persons who are renting a room in their property.

Are you declaring your gfs contributions as rent and paying tax on them and filing a tax return with this declared?

Have you registered with the prtb for her? These are requirements to claim.

Eire Go Brach

Thanks for the reply. I had a room rented years ago and he claimed back his tax. But I was not required to register with the PRTB.

Right now we are doing nothing. She just pays half of the mortgage plus the bills. But could this be considered rent? That is my question.

If she was paying it somewhere else. She would be entitled to rent relief I would imagine.

I did not realise it was abolished. So It probably does not matter.

barneystinson

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I had a room rented years ago and he claimed back his tax. But I was not required to register with the PRTB.

Right now we are doing nothing. She just pays half of the mortgage plus the bills. But could this be considered rent? That is my question.

If she was paying it somewhere else. She would be entitled to rent relief I would imagine.

I did not realise it was abolished. So It probably does not matter.

Well what's the position: is she paying rent, or is she paying half the bills & mortgage and therefore acquiring an equitable interest in the property..?

Rent is just that, payment for use of the property - if she's paying half of the mortgage it would appear that she'd have a claim against you in the event that ye split.

Marcusm

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Have you registered with the prtb for her? These are requirements to claim.

She doesn't have exclusive use of the property and is, in any event, living with the landlord. Her status is that of a licensee and there is neither a requirement nor a capability to register such arrangements with PRTB.

Eire Go Brach

barneystinson wrote: »

Well what's the position: is she paying rent, or is she paying half the bills & mortgage and therefore acquiring an equitable interest in the property..?

Well that's it. That's the question I'm trying to get an answer to. If we spilt up. I'm sure she could get something. That's not something we have looked into.

Mr. Incognito

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/owning_a_home/home_owners/rent_a_room_scheme.html

Eire Go Brach

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/owning_a_home/home_owners/rent_a_room_scheme.html

I had checked that. Only useful information I got from that was this "You are renting the room in your home to your son or daughter (but there is no restriction in the case of other family members)"


I don't think it matters. She moved here in 2011. She rented before that and claimed off previous landlords though. Would she still be able to claim then If it's possible or am I wasting my time ringing them? I don't wanna ring them. For them to tell me that it's an income and I have to pay tax on it.

nompere

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

I had checked that. Only useful information I got from that was this "You are renting the room in your home to your son or daughter (but there is no restriction in the case of other family members)"


I don't think it matters. She moved here in 2011. She rented before that and claimed off previous landlords though. Would she still be able to claim then If it's possible or am I wasting my time ringing them? I don't wanna ring them. For them to tell me that it's an income and I have to pay tax on it.

You need to separate the two questions.

Question 1 relates to your rent a room relief. It seems to qualify, so you are not receiving taxable income if the amount is below €10,000 per annum.

Question 2 is her rent relief. The page Mr I linked to has a link within it about a person's entitlement to rent relief. It's this page; http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/tax_relief_for_tenants.html

So if she was renting somewhere on 7 December 2010, and claiming relief on the rent, then she seems eligible to continue to claim until 2017.

barneystinson

Is she paying rent though, she doesn't seem to be. Does she consider she's paying rent or does she consider she's paying half the mortgage, and therefore owns an equal stake in the house...

Eire Go Brach

It is Less than €10000. Quite a fair bit less.

Yes she was renting before 2010. (I need to get my dates exactly right)

In terms of paying rent or mortgage. It's an apartment in negative equity. Probably more then 50%.
We hope to buy a house together. So that is the reason we have not put her name on the mortgage. We probably never will.

Maybe I am looking at this from a too simple point of view.
Which is that if she was paying it somewhere else. She would be due it.

Dixie Chick

The thing is, if she was renting somewhere else and her lease started after the 7 December 2010 she wouildnt be entitled to a tax credit.

As your arrangement started in 2011 there was no tax credit available anyway. Only if it was a lease established before the above date and continued on afterwards.

barneystinson

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

It is Less than €10000. Quite a fair bit less.

Yes she was renting before 2010. (I need to get my dates exactly right)

In terms of paying rent or mortgage. It's an apartment in negative equity. Probably more then 50%.
We hope to buy a house together. So that is the reason we have not put her name on the mortgage. We probably never will.

Maybe I am looking at this from a too simple point of view.
Which is that if she was paying it somewhere else. She would be due it.

If she was paying it somewhere else it'd be rent though. I can come up with some ifs as well...!

If she chose to stop contributing tomorrow, and moved out, could you sue her for an amount of money for unpaid rent?

If ye broke up tomorrow could she refuse to move out, because she was a tenant paying rent and required notice?

Eire Go Brach

Ah I think I will just leave it.

I would be worried that if I rang and asked them. That it would be considered an income and I might have to pay tax on it.

Thanks for your help

myshirt

You do not need to register with the PRTB. This type of tenancy would not be governed by the 2004 act.

And on the note of the PRTB, it is such a ridiculous quango that you can actually be non compliant, and when you get caught, just pay the extra €100, or whatever it is for not registering the tenancy within 30 days.

We used to budget for fines, penalties etc when we first got into receivership work 6 years ago, but nope, not a penny.

OP, also be careful about resulting trusts arising from your situation, given you are taking payment and also in a relationship (in other words your partner can get an interest in the property, whereas you might think it is all yours)

small investor

The rent a room scheme is not for sum1 who is clearly making a payment to her partner ! She is paying half the mortgage. You cannot pretend this is rent a room.