Department of Finance publishes a report on the review of the rent tax credit

As part of the Budget 2026 publications, the Department of Finance has published the first review of the Rent Tax Credit. Introduced in the Finance Act 2022, the Rent Tax Credit (RTC) has been reviewed using administrative data from its initial years of operation, 2022 and 2023. The review presents early findings and draws preliminary conclusions on the credit’s effectiveness and value for money.

Some of the main findings from the review include:

• The most represented cohorts among RTC claimants are young adults between 21 and 40 years old, residents in Dublin, and single persons,
• 7 per cent of taxpayer units claiming the RTC had an income over than €100,000 in 2022, and
• The estimated cost for 2024 and 2025 of the credit is approximately €350 million in each year, which would make the RTC one of the top ten costing tax expenditures for 2024.