Mortgage interest tax relief is this available for buying a house in 2015?

boogaloop

We recently got an approval in principal letter from the bank for a mortgage.

The aip letter gives two figures. One says Monthly repayment is X. The other says net mortgage repayment after TRS (if applicable) is Y.
Y is almost 200 euro less than X.
I rang the bank manager who said absolutely, for first time buyers there is relief available and that it would be between us & revenue to look at.

From anything I look up, it looks like this relief ended in 2012. I'm confused as bank manager seemed so definite - am I missing something here/calling it the wrong thing??

Obviously the lower repayment figure would be much more palatable but dont want to get my hopes up based on that either.

Help??

Bob24

Subscribing to this thread as I would certainly like it - but I also don't think they is anything like this any-more.

Michael D Not Higgins

TRS ended in 2012 for new mortgages.

Eldarion

Pretty black and white right here

Michael D Not Higgins

The real question is why a bank manager either doesn't know this or is intentionally misleading customers.

boogaloop

Exactly - very concerned if the bank manager doesn't know what he is talking about.

I did find this: http://www.revenue.ie/en/online/mortgage-interest-relief.html

Which was updated in 2013 and does not mention anything about no longer available after 2012.....

Is there two different things by any chance or maybe I'm just clutching at straws?

jon1981

You're clutching at straws..

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/owning_a_home/buying_a_home/mortgage_interest_relief.html

Mortgages taken out after 31 December 2012 do not qualify for mortgage interest relief.

boogaloop

Update: Yes, clutching at straws I rang revenue who said no such thing after 2012.

I'm now both extremely peed off & concerned with the bank that they seem unaware of something that changed more than 2 years ago.

Back to the drawing board now re what we can afford as a purchase price.

This house buying rollercoaster sucks

jon1981

boogaloop wrote: »

Back to the drawing board now re what we can afford as a purchase price.

This house buying rollercoaster sucks

Why would that matter? Even if it was in place it would have only have been for a few years? what would you have done then?

Assuming it was still in place surely the banks are going to assess your affordability based on the non interest relief repayment and ultimately you'll be paying that for a majority of the term.

boogaloop

The difference of 200 euro or so a month would have eased us in to paying it for the initial few years, while we would also be trying to get the house set up, buying furniture etc.

Of course it doesn't make an absolutely massive difference, but it does mean that we need to keep more of our savings for 'set up', and so overall reduces our buying power.

Plus that 200 euro gave us a bit of a buffer if/when interest rates increase etc. Yes of course the bank assessed us on our affordability without any relief, I'm just annoyed at myself that I believed the bank manager. That's allowed isn't it?!

jon1981

Got ya, we had the same debacle but decided it's a long game so it just meant we'd have to defer kitting out a bedroom or two awhile longer.

I wonder if they use the same letter template for existing mortgage holders with another bank that might have be looking to move to AIB and already have the Interest relief? Could that be the source of confusion? Either way there's no excuse for the bank manager not knowing what the rules are!

The_Morrigan

Bank managers don't issue these letters they tend to come from a centralised mortgage department and would be templates.
Sure I get a letter every couple of years with a list of available rates to choose from...There is always a tracker option but it doesn't apply to me. It could however apply to the thousands of other customers who got the same letter.

rameire

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

The real question is why a bank manager either doesn't know this or is intentionally misleading customers.

You would be surprised how many people in the Banking/Mortgage business havn't a clue about TRS.

Michael D Not Higgins

rameire wrote: »

You would be surprised how many people in the Banking/Mortgage business havn't a clue about TRS.

I'm continually surprised by incompetent professionals. The fact that this is a widely known fact and is easily found by Googling TRS or mortgage interest relief is worrying, even for a manager who's probably managing people rather than the day to day rates, applications, etc. A change to the system like the expiry of mortgage interest relief for new mortgages over two years ago is the sort of thing that even a manager with a vague understanding of the technicalities of mortgages should be au fait with.

There are plenty of managers in my own company who haven't a clue about the technical work but they sure as hell know when a change is going to be implemented by our regulatory body and have the right people lined up to effect the change. Fine, there might be a handover period where they might mistakenly refer to the old way but it's not over two years after the fact.

Barely Hedged

boogaloop wrote: »

We recently got an approval in principal letter from the bank for a mortgage.

The aip letter gives two figures. One says Monthly repayment is X. The other says net mortgage repayment after TRS (if applicable) is Y.
Y is almost 200 euro less than X.
I rang the bank manager who said absolutely, for first time buyers there is relief available and that it would be between us & revenue to look at.

From anything I look up, it looks like this relief ended in 2012. I'm confused as bank manager seemed so definite - am I missing something here/calling it the wrong thing??

Obviously the lower repayment figure would be much more palatable but dont want to get my hopes up based on that either.

Help??

Maybe he/she was confusing buy to let? If you specifically said youre a first time buyer well thats head scratching.

In summary, for new mortgages taken out after 2012:

Mortgage for principal residence - 0% mortgage interest relief

Mortgage for buy to let - 75% mortgage interest relief

Mortgage for commercial - 100% mortgage interest relief

The_Morrigan

Barely Hedged wrote: »

Maybe he/she was confusing buy to let? If you specifically said youre a first time buyer well thats head scratching.

In summary, for new mortgages taken out after 2012:

Mortgage for principal residence - 0% mortgage interest relief

Mortgage for buy to let - 75% mortgage interest relief

Mortgage for commercial - 100% mortgage interest relief

The bank wouldn't be quoting interest relief for btl. That tends not to be done at source but is done via the tax return.

Barely Hedged

The_Morrigan wrote: »

The bank wouldn't be quoting interest relief for btl. That tends not to be done at source but is done via the tax return.

Its incorporated in the banks spreadsheets to calculate the cashflows on a buy to let property.

Its an integral variable in commercial and buy to let affordability calculations. I couldnt understand why a bank wouldnt be aware of it?

The_Morrigan

Barely Hedged wrote: »

Its incorporated in the banks spreadsheets to calculate the cashflows on a buy to let property.

Its an integral variable in commercial and buy to let affordability calculations. I couldnt understand why a bank wouldnt be aware of it?

Dependants are also an integral factor in stress testing but they don't quote the deductions for children on an offer letter.

The people doing the face to face appointments, those doing the number crunching and those pressing print on a letter have no idea what the other does. I used to send out letters for the banks interest in an insurance policy - I've nothing to do with any of those insurance companies nor did I understand their calculations and terms. I still sent out letters though.

Barely Hedged

The_Morrigan wrote: »

Dependants are also an integral factor in stress testing but they don't quote the deductions for children on an offer letter.

The people doing the face to face appointments, those doing the number crunching and those pressing print on a letter have no idea what the other does. I used to send out letters for the banks interest in an insurance policy - I've nothing to do with any of those insurance companies nor did I understand their calculations and terms. I still sent out letters though.

Yep, fair enough. It must have been an old letter template the bank used.

Anyway, my original post displays the list of all applicable relief for mortgages and your sole residence is definitely not one from 2013 onwards

The_Conductor

Some people moving property- or whose partners may have had a previous mortgage- may have a right to TRS which they qualified for on a previous loan (but not a new loan). The letter is valid- as long as it implies that the TRS may or may not apply- and it is up to the applicant to determine their eligibility or otherwise, to it.

In any event- even for those who have legacy rights to TRS- its going to be gone in a little over 2 years anyway- its being phased out completely.

Michael D Not Higgins

The_Conductor wrote: »

Some people moving property- or whose partners may have had a previous mortgage- may have a right to TRS which they qualified for on a previous loan (but not a new loan). The letter is valid- as long as it implies that the TRS may or may not apply- and it is up to the applicant to determine their eligibility or otherwise, to it.

In any event- even for those who have legacy rights to TRS- its going to be gone in a little over 2 years anyway- its being phased out completely.

Yes but the bank manager said it was "absolutely" available to first time buyers, hence OP's confusion.

Dubh Geannain

My AIP last year from PTSB had a breakdown of monthly repayments both excluding and including MIR.

I knew myself it was expired and just rolled my eyes, putting it down to pure laziness that they hadn't updated their template.

Edit: It was a FTB mortgage approval.

boogaloop

Thanks all. I think what threw me was that although I was pretty sure MIR was gone, the bank manager seemed so sure when I rang him - "absolutely, still available to FTB's" so I allowed a little hopeful doubt to creep in. Bigger fool me.
The manager has confirmed now that it is not available, their standard letter template has not been changed (in over 2 years), apologies for that etc. etc.

So.......back to reality again. Very annoying tho, and lazy as Dubh Geannain says. Also makes me wonder what else they're not telling me or sure about......

jon1981

So it was a "computer says Noooooo" moment for him...


My assumption was right