Hi,
I bought a house in June 2005 and lived there for 2 years as I did it up in the evenings. I'm self-employed so I end up working wherever the job takes me. A year ago, I got a 7 month contract in the midlands, so I rented there midweek while my PPR lay empty.
That role ended, and later I got another contract in Dublin. It meant renting again, but for various reasons (firstly affordability and secondly the PPR was broken into during my absence) I decided to rent out a couple of rooms to a friend of a friend. Hand on heart I have to admit that I'm not back there that often (after 2.5 years of working on it every spare moment, I'm kinda sick of the place), but I still keep a room free for myself as this job could end at any stage and I still need it as a base. Total annual rent is below the rent-a-room cut-off limit and also less than the going rate for a "fully" rented house in the area.
Should I be nervous of explaining this situation to Revenue? I can hear them saying "oh, but you don't really live there so it's an investment property" whereas the truth is that it's still my base, even if I'm not there that often. Any thoughts?
I bought a house in June 2005 and lived there for 2 years as I did it up in the evenings. I'm self-employed so I end up working wherever the job takes me. A year ago, I got a 7 month contract in the midlands, so I rented there midweek while my PPR lay empty.
That role ended, and later I got another contract in Dublin. It meant renting again, but for various reasons (firstly affordability and secondly the PPR was broken into during my absence) I decided to rent out a couple of rooms to a friend of a friend. Hand on heart I have to admit that I'm not back there that often (after 2.5 years of working on it every spare moment, I'm kinda sick of the place), but I still keep a room free for myself as this job could end at any stage and I still need it as a base. Total annual rent is below the rent-a-room cut-off limit and also less than the going rate for a "fully" rented house in the area.
Should I be nervous of explaining this situation to Revenue? I can hear them saying "oh, but you don't really live there so it's an investment property" whereas the truth is that it's still my base, even if I'm not there that often. Any thoughts?