PDH to Investment property- Query

Hi
Here is my situation

Last year I purchased a property with a family member, we intended to live in the property but I didnt get an expected transfer back home with my job so I am in Dublin for foreseeable future.

My sister did not want to move into the property on her own so we paid mortgage away for a few months but it was too much so we got a tenant in. Not registered with tenancy board etc etc.

We now want to regularise the situation. As we were both first time buyers we didnt pay stamp on purchase at the time, I understand the position that if it was investment property we would have to..comes to about 9k.

Query is, can we retrospetively pay the stamp on the property?
If so can our FTB status be restored? We never claimed TRS or anything like that but I know now if I ever wanted to buy again I would have to pay stamp duty, so would my sister.

A colleague told me that you only lose your FTB status when you buy your PDH i.e you can buy an investment property pay the stamp and still be classified as a FTB? This sounds mad when I actually write it down.

Bottom line is I made a serious blunder buying the property, to lose first time buyer status and have to retrospectively pay the stamp would be a double whammy of epic proportions

I suspect you know the bad news already. You've lost your first-time buyer status. Once you have any interest in a property here or abroad you will have lost your ftb status. If you want to "go legit" on the property you will have to register as landlords with the Private Tenancies Registration Board and come clean to Revenue over the stamp duty that you owe. It will be calculated as what you should have paid at the time on the property if you had declared yourselves as investors. Also bear in mind that you may well have an income tax bill to pay on the rent that you've received (less certain allowable expenses).
Not great news maybe but the one advantage with doing it above board is the fact that you won't have the worry about Revenue catching up with you in the future and maybe landing you with a whopping bill. Good luck!