{"id":566354,"date":"2026-07-24T18:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/566354\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:13:20","slug":"property-based-tax-measures-could-cost-close-to-e1-4bn-this-year-tax-papers-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/566354\/","title":{"rendered":"Property-based tax measures could cost close to \u20ac1.4bn this year, tax papers show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Property-based tax measures are expected to cost close to \u20ac1.4 billion this year, official papers published by the Department of Finance<\/a> show.<\/p>\n

A paper on tax and fiscal housing<\/a> measures reveals that a VAT reduction on the sale of newly completed apartments is projected to cost \u20ac390 million this year.<\/p>\n

It says the rent tax credit is likely to cost \u20ac350 million, while it is projected that \u20ac250 million will be spent on the help-to-buy<\/a> scheme for new homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBudget 2026 introduced a reduced VAT rate of 9 per cent to the sale of apartments from 8th October 2025. This measure was extended to the construction of apartments, and the supply and construction of apartment blocks, including student accommodation, from 26 November 2025. The 9 per cent rate will apply until 31 December 2030. In the case of dual contracts (for site and building services), both elements will be covered by the 9 per cent VAT rate. VAT is charged when a sale is made in the course of a business, meaning most sales of apartments by owner-occupiers (subject to anti-avoidance rules) would not be liable to VAT.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper suggests that overall this VAT-reduction measure could cost in excess of \u20ac1.6 billion until its scheduled expiry date in December 2030.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Home commencement levels fall to rate last recorded in 2020Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The paper says the help-to-buy scheme \u2013 an income tax incentive measure designed to assist first-time buyers to put together the deposit required to purchase a home \u2013 had cost about \u20ac1.48 billion since 2017. It says that as of the end of April this year, 65,303 claims under the scheme had been approved, involving nearly 120,000 applicants.<\/p>\n

As of May 19th, 2026, a total of 336,000 claims had been made by PAYE claimants in relation to the rent tax credit in respect of 2024, some 297,000 claims lodged for 2025 and some 64,000 claims in respect of 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it should be noted that most claims for credits by PAYE taxpayers take place after the year-end and it is expected that the bulk of claims for 2025 PAYE taxpayers will be made throughout 2026 and beyond,\u201d the paper states.<\/p>\n

It says data on claims by self-assessed taxpayers are not yet available for 2024, 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n

The paper also says the officials believe the planned new derelict property tax, as a successor to the former derelict sites levy, should apply to both residential and non-residential properties. It said that in broad terms, trends indicate that higher proportions of dereliction exist in counties in the north and west of the country.\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cDereliction is less prevalent in Dublin, in eastern counties and in large urban centres, in comparison to the overall number of buildings in these locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A separate paper on corporation tax<\/a> (CT) highlights Ireland\u2019s reliance on a small number of big companies. CT receipts increased to \u20ac32.9 billion in 2025, compared to \u20ac6.8 billion a decade earlier, the group said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf estimates of potentially transitory or cyclical corporate tax receipts are excluded, there is an underlying deficit in the public finances,\u201d the group said. \u201cThese transitory or cyclical receipts are linked to a small number of [multinationals] and cannot be relied upon to continue indefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten companies accounted for one sixth of the total tax take last year, it added. <\/p>\n

The papers show the Government considering tax incentives to boost innovation, while the research and development tax credit cost the exchequer about \u20ac1.3 billion in 2024, up from \u20ac976 million in 2023. <\/p>\n

The future of a range of business incentives due to run out this year, including the Employment Investment Incentive (EII), Start-Up Relief for Entrepreneurs (SURE) and the Start-up Capital Incentive (SCI) are also under consideration.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tax incentives for developers announced in bid to boost housing supplyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cEII, SURE and SCI play an important role in helping new companies raise alternative sources of funding and it is recommended that the reliefs should be extended for a further three years to end-2029,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

Companies\u2019 use of the Knowledge Development Box (KDB) has \u201cplateaued\u201d and the Government is weighing whether to keep it in place beyond the end of this year. \u201cWhile the KDB has proven effective for a small number of companies, it has never achieved the desired levels of take-up,\u201d the group said. <\/p>\n

The legislation behind the KDB has a sunset clause of January 1st next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Property-based tax measures are expected to cost close to \u20ac1.4 billion this year, official papers published by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,24463,1398,30557,3662,61,60,238730],"class_list":["post-566354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-corporation-tax","tag-department-of-finance","tag-help-to-buy","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tax-strategy-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}