# rent relief -- living with girlfriend ?



## overthebridg (4 Jan 2009)

Following on from the recent posting about eligibility for tax/rent relief when living with parents.

I live with my girlfriend, who owns the house, I pay my way every week.
I was curious to find out of I would be entitled make a claim on this. If so would it affect my gf's tax credits ?


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## WaterSprite (4 Jan 2009)

This question was answered on another thread a couple of months ago - do a search and you'll find it.

Sprite


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## rmelly (4 Jan 2009)

overthebridg said:


> Following on from the recent posting about eligibility for tax/rent relief when living with parents.
> 
> I live with my girlfriend, who owns the house, I pay my way every week.
> I was curious to find out of I would be entitled make a claim on this. If so would it affect my gf's tax credits ?


 
Does your girlfriend declare her rental income?


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## overthebridg (4 Jan 2009)

well she works full time so her paye is deducted as normal.

I'll search for that old posting. Cheers.


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## WaterSprite (4 Jan 2009)

Let us know if you find it ok (or not).  I know I posted to that thread so it's definitely there


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## ClubMan (4 Jan 2009)

Is the girlfriend availing of the rent a room scheme?


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## overthebridg (7 Jan 2009)

i searched around the old postings alright. Do you know around about when you posted it watersprite. 

Clubman : We haven't went that far about it yet. i found a website on citizens advice alright but it's not very clear there either.


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## Bronte (7 Jan 2009)

overthebridg said:


> Following on from the recent posting about eligibility for tax/rent relief when living with parents.
> 
> I live with my girlfriend, who owns the house, I pay my way every week.
> I was curious to find out of I would be entitled make a claim on this. If so would it affect my gf's tax credits ?


 
Your girlfriend will not be affected by rent received under the rent a room scheme if it's under the threshold amount of 10K.   Have a search on revenue.ie or http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/rent-credit.html  and http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/reliefs/exempt-income.html#section6 to check the details of the scheme, it only mentions parents as a special exemption, not boyfriend/girlfriend so I imagine you too can claim the rental tax credit.  It was dealt with on AAM before.


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## WaterSprite (7 Jan 2009)

Found the thread I was thinking of - here you go

Sprite


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## ClubMan (7 Jan 2009)

overthebridg said:


> Clubman : We haven't went that far about it yet. i found a website on citizens advice alright but it's not very clear there either.


What do you mean? The rent a room scheme seems pretty clear to me - an owner occupier can rent a room or rooms in their home and collect up to €10K p.a. in rent free rental income. The money needs to be declared even if there is no tax liability. Not sure about renting to a cohabiting partner though.


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## peteb (7 Jan 2009)

If you are renting in a property that is your main residence, you are entitled to claim tax relief on what you are paying.  Once you are not on the girlfriends mortgage then you are fine.
Re her credits.  Once your rent doesnt total more than 10k under the rent-a-room scheme she will be fine.  Anything about that and she would have to make a return and pay the correct amount.


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## ClubMan (7 Jan 2009)

peteb said:


> Once your rent doesnt total more than 10k under the rent-a-room scheme she will be fine.


Not necessarily. A person renting their one bedroom flat to a cohabiting partner could not avail of the rent a room scheme as far as I know.


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## WaterSprite (7 Jan 2009)

ClubMan said:


> Not necessarily. A person renting their one bedroom flat to a cohabiting partner could not avail of the rent a room scheme as far as I know.



When I called the Revenue (during that last thread that I linked to), I didn't go into detail of the number of bedrooms my theoretical house had but they did say that a "partner" could avail of rent relief and that I could have claimed the rent-a-room relief.  Is the operative thing the fact that you have to rent a whole room do you know?  I'd be surprised if that was an exclusion - in that case, someone couldn't rent out a room to e.g. two people sharing in a room by themselves (paying under the threshold)...


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## overthebridg (8 Jan 2009)

cheers lads for all the advice that more than clears it up for me.


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## ClubMan (8 Jan 2009)

WaterSprite said:


> When I called the Revenue (during that last thread that I linked to), I didn't go into detail of the number of bedrooms my theoretical house had but they did say that a "partner" could avail of rent relief and that I could have claimed the rent-a-room relief.  Is the operative thing the fact that you have to rent a whole room do you know?  I'd be surprised if that was an exclusion - in that case, someone couldn't rent out a room to e.g. two people sharing in a room by themselves (paying under the threshold)...


I thought that I saw mentioned elsewhere that somebody with a one bedroom property could not avail of the rent a room scheme. There is an element of self assessment to this so what's possible and what's actually legitimate may not be the same thing.


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