{"id":262105,"date":"2026-01-01T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262105\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:02:08","slug":"tens-of-thousands-of-mortgage-holders-failed-to-take-up-tax-break-worth-up-to-e1250-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262105\/","title":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of mortgage holders failed to take up tax break worth up to \u20ac1,250 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tens of thousands of mortgage<\/a> holders failed to take up a tax break<\/a> worth up to \u20ac1,250, internal documents from the Department of Finance<\/a> show. <\/p>\n

The Government decided to extend the mortgage interest tax relief in this year\u2019s budget \u2013 despite an internal briefing for then Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe<\/a> showing that the relief \u201chas not been utilised by the majority of eligible mortgage holders\u201d.<\/p>\n

The relief, which was first introduced in budget 2023, was availed of by 52,300 taxpayers that year \u2013 meaning that the maximum cost was around \u20ac35.4 million in foregone taxes for the exchequer.<\/p>\n

It was introduced against the backdrop of rapidly rising rates as the global interest rate environment changed rapidly in the wake of the pandemic, which in turn increased the cost of mortgages for many taxpayers. <\/p>\n

However, internal documents show initial expectations significantly overshot estimates of the scheme\u2019s popularity when it was first introduced, with the Central Bank then estimating it could cost up to \u20ac125 million.<\/p>\n

Briefing documents drawn up for Mr Donohoe at the time of the decision to extend the scheme show officials believe the uptake rate for the scheme is around 30 per cent. <\/p>\n

Based on this, officials believe the cost of the budget measure approved in October could be \u20ac25 million next year and just \u20ac13 million in 2027.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s finance spokesman, Louth TD Ged Nash<\/a>, said he was not surprised by the relatively low uptake. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a solution in search of a problem, as the low uptake helps to prove,\u201d he said. \u201cThe initial scheme was brought in as a result of Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael caving in to Sinn F\u00e9in demands, and as a public policy instrument it made little sense and is therefore hard to justify at any level.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Housing crisis forcing women to remain in risky situations, say Women\u2019s AidOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He also argued there was poor public awareness of the scheme. <\/p>\n

The tax relief, which is granted at the standard rate of income tax, is based on 50 per cent of the increase in interest paid in 2026 compared with interest paid in 2022. The value is either 20 per cent of this excess figure, or \u20ac625, whichever is less. This is a decrease from the \u20ac1,250 previously available \u2013 which will still be open to taxpayers next year on income earned in 2025.<\/p>\n

It is only available to mortgage holders with a balance of between \u20ac80,000 and \u20ac500,000 at the end of 2022. <\/p>\n

The relief is operated by introducing a credit which is offset against a taxpayer\u2019s annual liability \u2013 and is only available on properties which are a person\u2019s sole or main residence, or that of their former or separated spouse or civil partner, or a dependent relative. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of mortgage holders failed to take up a tax break worth up to \u20ac1,250, internal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,22779,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,9650,5,46,4520,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-262105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-department-of-finance","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-mortgages","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-paschal-donohoe","24":"tag-tax","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115821396188703987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}