Rent-A-Room Scheme (child living at home with parents)

ubiquitous said:

There is no suggestion anywhere that genuine domestic bill-sharing arrangements within families are liable to tax.

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I never said there was. The point is that most young people who live at home and hand up a pittance consider themselves to be paying rent. However, if you ask them who buys the toilet rolls, the reply will usually be, Mother/Father. The last thread on this subject seemed to be full of young people, some of whom claimed rent relief, without considering the implications for their parents. I'm working from memory here so correct me if I'm wrong. Up to January they were entitled to do so. Now the new proposal(?) means that they are no longer entitled to claim. They're still paying the money, so do parents have to justify these small amounts to Revenue? I would have thought it would cost them more to police it than it would to pay the small amount of rent relief to which these people were entitled.

Basically I don't understand the logic which states if your child lives with a stranger, then that stranger is entitled to benefit financially, but you, as a parent are not.

However if an individual confirms to the Revenue that money paid to their parents is commercial open-market rent, and claims a tax relief on that basis, then the Revenue are well entitled to tax the parents on that rent.

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For me, the question is not whether Revenue are entitled. The question is as I stated above with regard to the RaRs....making fish of one and flesh of another.

Newby said:

None of us do!!!

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Yeah. On another thread a while ago Ubiqitous made the point with regard to Revenue Law and the employees of the tax office simply not being able to get through it all, never mind knowing it all. I tried to read it but lost the will to live half way through....well maybe quarter way!

Also...

[broken link removed]

14 Amendment of section 216A (Rent-a-room relief) of the Principal Act.

Summary

Section 14 amends section 216A of the Taxes Consolidation Act to deny the exemption from income tax being granted to parents in respect of rent received from their children from the letting of rooms in their private residence

Details

Under section 216A the income received from the letting of rooms in one’s private residence is exempt from income tax provided that the gross rental income is below €7,620. The section was introduced as an incentive to encourage individuals to let accommodation in their principal private residence. Section 14 inserts a new subsection (3A) into section 216A which will deny the “rent-a-room” relief to parents in circumstances where the relevant sums received in respect of accommodation provided in the family home are from a child to his/her parent.

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