The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt delivered his UK Spring Budget 2024 today.
As you are aware, the Furnished Holiday Letting (FHL) regime provides tax relief for property owners letting out furnished properties as short term holiday accommodations. From 6th April 2025, however, the Chancellor is removing this tax incentive in an attempt to increase the availability of long term rental properties.
According to HMRC’s guidance material, a furnished holiday let is deemed to be a furnished commercial property which is situated in the United Kingdom.
It must be available to let for a minimum of 210 days in the year.
It must be commercially let as holiday accommodation for a minimum of 105 days in the year.
Guests must not occupy the property for 31 days or more, unless, something unforeseen happens such as the holidaymaker has a fall or accident or the flight is delayed.
You may wish to consider your options before the rules are abolished in April 2025.
Options include:
Please be aware that the information contained in this article is of a general nature. It is not intended to address specific circumstances in relation to any individual or entity. All reasonable efforts have been made by Accounts Advice Centre to provide accurate and up-to-date information, however, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate on the date it is received or that it will continue to remain so. This information should not be acted upon without full and comprehensive, specialist professional tax advice.
Today the Irish Revenue Commissioners published eBrief No. 197/22 in relation to emergency accommodation and ancillary services. For full information, please click: https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/value-added-tax/part03-taxable-transactions-goods-ica-services/Services/services-emergency-accommodation-and-ancillary-services.pdf
If you are providing Emergency Accommodation it is essential for you to consider the VAT implications.
The most important points are as follows:
Please be aware that the information contained in this article is of a general nature. It is not intended to address specific circumstances in relation to any individual or entity. All reasonable efforts have been made by Accounts Advice Centre to provide accurate and up-to-date information, however, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate on the date it is received or that it will continue to remain so.. This information should not be acted upon without full and comprehensive, specialist professional tax advice.
The publication of Draft Residential Zoned Land Tax Maps by local authorities was announced today by the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe T.D. and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien T.D.
Landowners have until 1st January 2023 to make a submission to the relevant local authority as to whether or not their land, on the map, satisfies the criteria to be liable to the tax.
This is part of the implementation of the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT).
What is RZLT?
As you may remember, Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) was introduced by Finance Act 2021 as part of the Government’s ‘Housing for All – a New Housing Plan for Ireland’.
Land within the scope of RZLT will be liable to an annual 3% tax based on its market value from 1st January 2024 onwards.
RZLT will apply to land that on, or after, 1st January 2022, is:
In other words, where the land is zoned as suitable for residential development and serviced after 1st January 2022, tax will be first due in the third year after it comes within scope.
The primary objective of RZLT is activate land for residential development and not to increase the Government’s tax revenue.
It will operate on a self-assessment basis, which places the filing and payments obligations on the landowners. You must retain detailed records to enable the Revenue Commissioners to verify the correct amount of RZLT due and payable.
What should you do?
If you own land liable to RZLT, you must register for the tax.
You will be able to register for RZLT from late 2023.
You will be required to file an annual return to Revenue and pay any liability on or before 23rd May of each year, beginning in 2024.
Please be aware that interest, penalties and surcharges will apply in relation to cases of non-compliance, for example:
Exclusions.
There are a number of exclusions from RZLT.
Certain properties are excluded from RZLT such as existing residential properties.
Homeowners will not have to pay the RZLT if they own a dwelling which appears on the local authorities’ RZLT Maps, and this property is subject to Local Property Tax (LPT). In other words, residential properties liable for Local Property Tax (LPT) are not subject to RZLT.
If, however, your garden/yard/land is greater than 0.4047 hectares (one acre) then you must register for RZLT.
No RZLT, however, is payable by owners of these properties.
Summary:
For full information, please click:
https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/residential-zoned-land/due-date-excluded-properties.aspx
Please be aware that the information contained in this article is of a general nature. It is not intended to address specific circumstances in relation to any individual or entity. All reasonable efforts have been made by Accounts Advice Centre to provide accurate and up-to-date information, however, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate on the date it is received or that it will continue to remain so.. This information should not be acted upon without full and comprehensive, specialist professional tax advice.
Please be aware that the information contained in this article is of a general nature. It is not intended to address specific circumstances in relation to any individual or entity. All reasonable efforts have been made by Accounts Advice Centre to provide accurate and up-to-date information, however, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate on the date it is received or that it will continue to remain so.. This information should not be acted upon without full and comprehensive, specialist professional tax advice.
Nestlé has lost its appeal against the original 2016 ruling by the UK’s First Tier Tribunal over the VAT treatment that should apply to its strawberry and banana flavoured Nesquik powders.
The First Tier Tribunal found in favour of the HMRC not repaying the £4 million of output VAT which had been over declared by Nestlé on these products. Nestlé’s grounds for seeking this repayment were that the fruit flavoured powders were liable to the zero VAT rate as they were deemed to be “a powder for the preparation of beverages.”
The Tribunal held in favour of the HMRC that the products in question should remain at the standard VAT rate and as a result, no claim for the over declared output VAT is to be allowed.
Nestlé argued that strawberry and banana Nesquik should be zero rated. The reason being that they encourage milk drinking and milk is zero rated.
Nestlé also argued that these flavours should have the same VAT treatment as the chocolate flavour powder because they are in essence, the same product.
Both Nestlé and the HMRC agree that the chocolate flavoured Nesquik should be zero rated on the basis that this product contains cocoa thereby allowing it to fall within the list of “exceptions to the excepted items” according to the UK’s zero rating provisions.
The Upper Tribunal pointed out that there are number of other anomalies within the VAT system. For example, the fact fruit salad is zero rated while fruit smoothies are liable to VAT at the standard rate.
This case is likely to be appealed by Nestlé.
The lesson to be learnt from this case is that advice should always be sought in advance, especially with regard to new supplies, to ensure that the correct VAT treatment is always applied.
The full ruling can be found here:
Image courtesy of tiverylucky at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A stamp duty refund scheme in respect of land purchased to develop residential property was signed into the 2017 Finance Act on 25th December 2017.
The Act provides that where stamp duty, at the new higher rate of 6%. is paid on the acquisition of land which is subsequently used to build residential property, the purchaser will be entitled to a rebate of 4% being 2/3rds of the duty paid.
It is important to keep in mind that the refund of stamp duty is only applicable in relation to the proportion of the land used for residential development.
The Main Points of the Scheme are:
Despite the fact that this scheme has been signed into legislation there are still areas of uncertainty. It is expected that Revenue will issue guidance material to clarify matters in due course.
Please be aware that the information contained in this article is of a general nature. It is not intended to address specific circumstances in relation to any individual or entity. All reasonable efforts have been made by Accounts Advice Centre to provide accurate and up-to-date information, however, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate on the date it is received or that it will continue to remain so. This information should not be acted upon without full and comprehensive, specialist professional tax advice.
As you are aware, Finance Act 2017 increased the rate of stamp duty on the transfer of non-residential property from 2% to 6% with effect from midnight on Budget Day.
The change applied to instruments executed on or after 11th October 2017.
This dramatic increase will, most likely, reduce the number of commercial property transactions carried out in Ireland in 2018.
On 27th October 2017, The Irish Revenue Commissioners published Revenue eBrief No. 94/2017 outlining the transactions eligible for the 2% Stamp Duty rate under Transitional Relief Measures:
In circumstances where a binding contract has been entered into before 11th October 2017 the rate of stamp duty will remain at 2%, provided the following two conditions are met:
A person who filed a stamp duty return before the enactment of the Finance Bill and who was satisfied that the transitional measures would have applied if the Finance Bill had been enacted, had two options:
On 4th January Revenue published guidelines on how this postponed stamp certificate can be obtained. To receive the certificate, you must amend the Stamp Duty Return by following the link:
For those who filed their Returns but did not pay the correct amount of Stamp Duty at the 2% rate, you will not have received a Stamp Certificate.
In order to obtain the stamp certificate you must amend the Stamp Duty Return, pay the Stamp Duty of 2%, pay any Interest accruing on the late payment of Stamp Duty and pay any surcharge arising on the late filing of the Return, if relevant.
Once the payments have been processed your Stamp Certificate will issue automatically.
Please be aware that the information contained in this article is of a general nature. It is not intended to address specific circumstances in relation to any individual or entity. All reasonable efforts have been made by Accounts Advice Centre to provide accurate and up-to-date information, however, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate on the date it is received or that it will continue to remain so. This information should not be acted upon without full and comprehensive, specialist professional tax advice.
Deadline Date |
Relevant Tax Obligations
|
10th January 2018 | • Payment of Local Property Tax for 2018 |
• Extended payment date to 21st March 2018 if payment made by SDA via ROS | |
31st January 2018 | • Payment of Capital Gains Tax for assets disposed of between 1st December |
and 31st December 2017 | |
15th February 2018 | • Filing of 2017 P.35 and P.35L for Employers. |
• Provision of P.60s to Employees | |
• Deadline date extended to 23rd February if filing via ROS | |
31st March 2018 | • Deadline date for Husband / Wife / Spouse / Civil Partner to submit an election for |
change of assessment for 2018 using either Assessable Spouse or Nominated | |
Civil Partner’s Election Form | |
31st October 2018 | • Filing 2017 Tax Return |
• Payment of balance of 2017 Income Tax | |
• Payment of 2018 Preliminary Tax | |
• Filing of IT38 (i.e. Gift/Inheritance Tax) Returns for benefits taken between 1st | |
September 2017 and 31st August 2018 | |
• Payment of Pension Contributions for relief in the 2017 year of assessment | |
15th December 2018 | • Payment of Capital Gains Tax liability on gains arising between 1st January 2018 to |
30th November 2018 | |
31st December 2018 | • Final Date for the submission of a Repayment Claim for 2014 year of assessment |
The Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe T.D delivered his first Budget today, on 10th October 2017, which concentrated more on expenditure than on tax changes.
The Minister announced a number of positive measures to assist small and medium sized enterprises prepare for “Brexit” as well as confirming Ireland’s commitment to the 12½% corporation tax rate.
We are pleased to bring you our summary of the tax measures set out in Budget 2018.
PERSONAL TAXATION
Universal Social Charge
The USC has been cut for lower and middle income earners.
The 2.5% USC rate has been reduced by 0.5% to 2% and the band has been increased to €19,372 from €18,772 which will benefit employees earning the minimum wage.
The 5% USC rate has been reduced by 0.25% to 4.75%
Medical card holders and individuals aged 70 years and over whose combined income does not exceed €60,000 per annum will only be liable to pay a maximum USC rate of 2%.
For self-employed individuals with income of over €100,000 the 11% rate will continue to apply
Income Tax
The higher or marginal tax rate will remain at 40% for 2018.
The income tax standard rate band, however, will be increased by €750 to €34,550 i.e. the entry point at which the 40% income tax rate applies has been increased from €33,800 to €34,550 for a single person and from €42,800 to €43,550 for married couples with one income.
The marginal rate of tax for individuals earning between €34,551 and €70,044 will be 48.75%.
The marginal rate of tax for individuals earning in excess of €70,044 will remain at 52% for employees.
The marginal rate of tax for self-employed individuals earning in excess of €100,000 will remain at 55%.
Earned Income Credit
For self-employed individuals, the earned income tax credit will increase by €200 to €1,150.
No reference was made in today’s Budget speech as to when future increases to this tax credit would arise to bring it in line with the PAYE Tax Credit of €1,650.
Home Carer Tax Credit
The Home Carer Tax Credit will increase by €100 from €1,100 to €1,200.
The €7,200 income threshold remains
This tax credit can be claimed by a jointly-assessed couple where a spouse/civil partner cares for one or more dependents regardless of the number of individuals cared for.
Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT)
The rate for Deposit Interest Retention Tax for 2018 will be charged at 37%.
PRSI
The National Training Fund Levy will be increased over the next three years and will apply to employees under Classes A and H by increasing Employer’s PRSI as follows:
a) 10.85% in 2018
b) 10.95% in 2019
c) 11.05% in 2020
Mortgage interest relief
Mortgage Interest Relief for residential property owners which was scheduled to be abolished from the end of this year will continue until 2020.
This relates to home owners who took out qualifying mortgages between 2004 and 2012.
The relief will be reduced as follows:
a) to 75% in 2018
b) to 50% in 2019
c) to 25% in 2020
Following a change in last year’s Finance Act, the amount of mortgage interest allowable against taxable rental income will increase to 85% with effect from 1st January 2018. However, there was no reference, in today’s Budget speech, to the expected increase from 80% to 85% mortgage interest relief on rented residential property.
As you may remember, in Budget 2017, it had been announced that100% mortgage interest relief for rental properties would be restored on a phased basis by 2020.
Deductibility of pre-letting expenses
Expenses incurred prior to the first letting of a property are not deductible against rental income, with a few exceptions.
Following today’s Budget, property owners who rent out residential properties which have been vacant for a period of twelve months or more will be entitled to a tax deduction of up to €5,000 per property.
These expenses must be revenue in nature and not capital expenditure.
The relief will be subject to a clawback of the property is withdrawn from the rental market within a four year period.
This relief will be available for qualifying expenditure between now and the end of 2021.
Benefit-in-kind on motor vehicles
The minister announced a number of measures to incentivise the purchase of electric cars including:
a) a 0% rate of Benefit-in-Kind for electric cars and the electricity used at to charge these vehicles while at work.
b) a VRT Relief measure
CAPITAL ACQUISITIONS TAX
No changes were announced to the CAT tax-free thresholds in the Budget.
CAPITAL GAINS TAX
No changes were announced to CGT rates in the Budget.
Seven Year Exemption
The Minister relaxed the “Seven Year Exemption” which applied to land or buildings purchased between 7th December and 31st December 2014.
Disposals of qualifying assets between years four and seven will now qualify for the full Capital Gains Tax Exemption
VAT
VAT Compensation Scheme
A VAT refund scheme was introduced in order to compensate charities for input VAT incurred on expenditure.
This scheme will take effect from 1st January 2018 but will be paid one year in arrears. In other words charities will be entitled to claim an input VAT credit in 2019 in relation to expenses incurred in 2018.
Charities will be entitled to a refund of a proportion of their VAT costs based on the level of non-public funding they receive.
The Minister also confirmed that a capped fund of €5 million will be available to fund the scheme in 2019.
For further information please visit:
http://www.budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2018/Documents/VAT_Compensation_Scheme_For_Charities.pdf
9% VAT Rate
The reduced VAT rate of 9% for goods and services, mainly related to the tourism and hospitality industry, has been retained.
VAT on Sunbed Sessions
In line with the Irish Government’s National Cancer Strategy, the VAT rate on sunbed services will increase from 13.5% to 23% from 1st January 2018.
BUSINESS TAXES
Corporation tax rate
The government has made a firm commitment to retaining the 12½% Corporation Tax rate to attract foreign direct investment.
Capital Allowances for Intangible Assets
The Minister confirmed that he would be limiting the amount of capital allowances that can be claimed for intangible assets.
A tax deduction for capital allowances under Section 291A TCA 1997 on intangible assets and any associated interest cost will now be limited to 80% of the relevant income arising from the intangible asset in the accounting period from midnight of 10th October 2017.
Key Employee Engagement Programme (KEEP)
The Minister announced plans for a new share based remuneration incentive for unquoted SME companies aimed at improving the ability of SMEs to attract and retain key staff.
This incentive will be available for qualifying KEEP share options granted between 1st January 2018 and 31st December 2023.
No income tax, PRSI or USC will be charged on the exercise of the share options. Instead gains from exercising these share options will only be liable to CGT @ 33%.
The tax becomes payable when the shares are sold.
State Aid approval will be required to introduce this scheme.
Accelerated capital allowances for expenditure on energy-efficient equipment
Following a review of the accelerated capital allowances scheme for energy efficient equipment, the current scheme is being extended for a further three years to the end of 2020.
STAMP DUTY
Stamp Duty on commercial property
The rate of stamp duty on commercial property transactions will have increased from 2% to 6% with effect from midnight of 10th October 2017.
A stamp duty refund scheme is also being introduced for commercial land acquired for the development of housing, on condition that the development must begin within 30 months of the purchase of the land.
It is expected that further details of the relief and the conditions will be outlined in the Finance Bill.
FARMING AND THE AGRI-SECTOR
Stamp duty
The Stamp duty rate of 1% remains for inter-family farm transfers for a further three years.
The Stamp Duty exemption for Young Trained Farmers on agricultural land transactions will also be retained.
Leasing land for solar panels
The leasing of agricultural land for the use of solar panels will continue to be classified as agricultural land for the purposes of the CAT Agricultural Relief and the CGT Retirement Relief providing the solar panel infrastructure does not exceed 50% of the total land holding..
BREXIT
Brexit Loan Scheme
A new Brexit Loan Scheme has been announced. A loan scheme of up to €300 million will be available at competitive rates to SMEs to assist them with their short-term working capital needs, with particular attention given to food industry businesses.
Details of this scheme will be provided by the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Plans were also announced to hire over 40 additional staff across the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and enterprise agencies in 2018 to respond to the issues arising from Brexit.
Increased funding
The Minister announced increased funding of €64 million to support the agri-sector. Of this, a further €25 million is to be provided to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to develop further Brexit loan schemes for the agri-food sector in addition to the loan scheme discussed above.
OTHER CHANGES
Sugar Tax
From 1st April 2018 two rates of tax on sugar-sweetened drinks will be introduced subject to State Aid approval.
The first will apply at a rate of 30 cent per litre where the sugar content is above 8g per 100ml.
The second rate of 20 cent per litre will apply where the sugar content is between 5g and 8g per 100ml.
Drinks with less than five grams of sugar won’t attract a sugar tax.
Vacant site levy
The vacant site levy has been increased from the current 3% levy in the first year to 7% in second and subsequent years to encourage land owners to develop vacant sites rather than “hoarding” land.
The vacant site levy is due to come into effect in 2018.
An owner of a property on a vacant site register who does not develop their land in 2018 will be liable to the 3% levy in 2019 and a further 7% levy in 2020 and each year thereafter until the land is developed.
From 1st January 2017, each local authority is obliged to maintain a register of vacant sites to include on the register, details of any site, which they believe, has been vacant for the previous twelve month period.
What is Rental Income?
According to the Revenue’s website, Rental income includes:
What about Local Property Tax?
According to Revenue, LPT is not a deductible expense against rental income under Section 97 TCA 1997.
According to the Thornhill Group, for Income Tax and Corporation Tax purposes, Local Property Tax should be deductible in a similar manner to commercial rates. Despite the fact that the Government has accepted this recommendation in principle no further details of when and how this deduction will take effect have been made available.
What is liable to Tax?
The net profit arising from a rental property is taxed at an individual’s marginal rate of tax being Income Tax plus PRSI plus Universal Social Charge.
In other words, tax is charged on the gross rents receivable less a deduction for all allowable expenses.
It is important to remember that a profit or loss computation must be carried out for each source of rental income.
The rental income on which tax is levied equals the total rental profits less the total losses from all rental sources combined.
Deductions in arriving at net profit include:
A deduction is also available for interest on monies borrowed for the purchase, or repair of the rental property.
For rented residential property, the allowable mortgage interest relief is restricted to 75% for the 2016 year of assessment and is dependent on the landlord registering the tenancy with the Residential Tenancy Board.
For the 2017 tax year, the mortgage interest deduction has increased from 75% to 80%.
The deductible amount will be increased by 5% every year from then on so that by 2021 100% of the mortgage interest will be deductable against the rental income received from qualifying residential lettings. In other words, the allowable rate will be 85% in 2018, 90% in 2019, 95% in 2020 and 100% in 2021.
The landlord may be able to claim 100% mortgage interest relief. To qualify he/she must:
a) rent out the residential property for three years to tenants receiving certain social housing supports and
b) be registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (RTB)
In situations where the rented residential property was purchased from the taxpayer’s spouse or civil partner, the interest will not be allowed as a deduction in computing the rental profits. This measure is aimed at preventing married couples and civil partners from generating interest by selling properties to each other and borrowing the necessary funds to do so.
How are Irish Rental Losses Treated?
In situations where a rental loss arises, it can be offset against the rental profit from another property. If there are insufficient profits for offset then it can be carried forward against future rental profits only.
The order of offset is very important. The landlord must use Capital Allowances first before offsetting the rental losses carried forward from an earlier year and it is not possible to carry rental losses back to a preceding tax year.
It is not possible to offset rental losses made by one spouse or civil partner against the rental profits of the other.
Losses arising from uneconomic rentals cannot be offset against other rental profits. Uneconomic rentals are defined as those where the expenses will always exceed the income of a particular rental source.
It is not possible to offset rental losses against income generated from other sources including salary, trade income, dividends, deposit interest, etc.
Please keep in mind that foreign rental losses can only be written off against foreign rental income.
What about Pre-Letting Expenses?
The general rule in tax legislation is that any expense incurred prior to the first letting of a rental property is not allowable. The reason being, that such expenses are not deemed to be expenses that relate to a particular lease. Therefore expenses incurred on buying furniture, painting and decorating the property, etc. before the first letting by its current owner and before the first occupancy by the tenant will not be allowable deductions.
There are, however, two exceptions based on the decision in Stephen Court Limited v Brown (HC 198/2 No 293 S.S.):
a) Advertising or marketing costs connected with the first rental of the property and
b) The legal costs incurred in drawing up the first tenancy lease for the rental property.
What is Rent-a-Room Relief?
If an individual rents a room or rooms in his/her sole or main residence and the gross income received does not exceed €12,000 for the 2016 year of assessment or €14,000 for 2017 onwards then no Income Tax, Universal Social Charge or Pay Related Social Insurance will be payable by that individual. In other words, if the rental income does not exceed the annual exemption limit in the year of assessment then the profit or loss arising on the rent will be deemed to be NIL.
Included in the annual exemption limits are payments from the renter/tenant for food, laundry or similar goods and services.
Where the income exceeds €12,000 in 2016 or €14,000 in 2017, the entire amount is taxable.
In situations where more than one individual is entitled to the rent, the annual exemption limit is divided between all the individuals concerned.
It is important to keep in mind that this relief is only available to individuals. In other words it does not apply to companies or partnerships which rent out residential properties.
This relief is available for both individuals who rent as well as individuals who own their own home.
Claiming Rent-a-Room Relief will not affect an individual’s entitlement to mortgage interest relief or Principal Private Residence Relief on the disposal of his/her sole or main residence.
Income from Rent-a-Room must be included in an individual’s annual Tax Return under “Exempt Income.”
The Rent-a-Room Relief will not apply where a child pays rent to a parent.
The Rent-a-Room Exemption is not compulsory. An individual may elect to have any rental profits or losses from this source assessed under the normal Case V Schedule D rules for rental income.
Filing a Tax Return
All individuals in receipt of rental income must declare this information in his/her annual tax return on or before 31st October in the year following the year of assessment.
If the rental profit is less than €5,000 it can be declared through the Form 12.
If, on the other hand, the net rental income is over €5,000 the individual will be obliged to register for Income Tax and declare his/her rental income in a Form 11 under the self assessment rules.
Where the landlord is non-resident and in the absence of an Irish resident Agent, the tenant(s) should deduct tax from the rent at the standard rate and pay this tax over to Revenue. The landlord will be entitled to a credit for the tax deducted by the tenant(s) and must file a Form R185 along with either a Form 11 or Form 12 depending on the amount of rental profit generated.
If, however, the landlord has engaged the services of a Tax Collection Agent in Ireland, this Irish resident individual will be responsible for filing the relevant tax return and submitting the appropriate tax payment on the landlord’s behalf.
image courtesy of mapichai @ freedigital photos