Rent Relief

J

JenMo

Guest
Hi,
I have been renting a pretty nice room from a friend in a fairly good house in Dublin since last July (while I awaited my own house to be finished off, grr!). I’ve paid slightly over €10,000 in rent to date (i.e. 1 year’s rent) and am looking to apply for rent relief.

My question is as follows:
As I’ve been renting across 2 different financial years (’07 & ’08), does this entitle my friend’s Gross Rental Income to total €17620 (€7620 for ’07 + €10000 for ’08), or should it be taken as pro-rata (€8810)?

Thanks for the help!
Jen.
 
You can claim relief (up to the relevant limits) on whatever rent you actually paid in the relevant years. These limits are summarised here:

[broken link removed]

Looks like the actual rent paid is well over the limits (unless you are widowed/married and over 55?) so you should qualify for the max.

I'm not sure what the relevance of how rental income is apportioned by your friend is to your rent relief query?
 
Thanks for that - didn't know the limits but knew about the limits to the Gross Rental Income so I don't want to scupper my friend's first time buyer status!
 
Your friend doesn't have a first time buyer status anymore if they already own their first property. Am I right in guessing you are talking about what the ceiling is for the Rent-a-Room scheme? As in are you asking what is the maximum your friend should charge you in a year?

Post crossed with Clubman's
 
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If you paid €10K for the 12 months to date then presumably that's €833 odd per month. Which implies 6 x €833 = €5K for the latter 6 months of 2007 and 12 x €833 = €10K in 2008 if you stay the full year?
 
Sorry for not explaining myself very well -
Yes my friend is basically taking my rent and is availing of the rent a room scheme. I am moving into my house in the next month or so, but looking back the rent I have paid over the last 12 months is slightly over the €10k (12 x €850) and if I have to stay another month we are worried that we will break the ceiling for the scheme.

Thanks guys.

Jen.
 
As far as I can see the rent is nowhere near the rent a room relief limit for either year at €833 per month. The 12 month period here is irrelevant. What matters is what rent was paid in each calendar/tax year.
 
We understood that my rental period would be less than 12months and split between 2 different financial years. The 2nd hand advice that we were following was that once the total rent was less than €17620 (or €10000) my friend would be safe in those calendar years - and not worried about calendar months.

Thanks again.
 
Sorry - I don't understand. But if the rent is c. €833 p.m. then that means that you paid €5K in 2007 and will pay €5K (or maybe €5,833?) in 2008 both of which are under the annual rent a room scheme limit of €7,620 (2007)/€10K (2008). I don't see how there is any confusion about this?
 
The confusion arose at about 8.14pm last night when some accountant told me that each financial year didn't matter and that the ceiling on the rent a room scheme was worked out at a pro-rata month over the rental period (be it 2 months or 12 months) so that the rent had to be less then €635p/m (€7620/12) last year and less than €833p/m (€10000/12) this financial year.
Panic over. So much for disinformation.

Jen.
 
JenMo said:
The confusion arose at about 8.14pm last night when some accountant told me that each financial year didn't matter and that the ceiling on the rent a room scheme was worked out at a pro-rata month over the rental period (be it 2 months or 12 months) so that the rent had to be less then €635p/m (€7620/12) last year and less than €833p/m (€10000/12) this financial year.
Click to expand...
This is wrong. It's the cumulative annual amount that matters - i.e. €7,620 in 2007 and €10K in 2008.
 
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