Attention - Irish Landlords living in Australia

Hi all

I just wanted to flag an issue for Irish landlords that they may not be aware of.

Revenue has started clamping down on Irish ex-pats living abroad that have rented out the houses that they can't sell. As you can imagine, there are a lot of you out there, including myself. The problem is, a lot of them aren't declaring the income and may potentially have tax to pay that Revenue wants now.  They are catching people in a number of ways....

1. Landlords with social welfare tenants are automatically registered with the authorities, whether they know it or not.
2. All tenants can claim a tax credit for declaring their landlords details. Some tenants are making arrangements with their landlords for cheaper rent – there is a recession, I'm afraid they are probably claiming it anyway.
3. Random checks are being done on people that claim tax relief at source on their mortgage payments. This is a big cost to the State. A lot of ex-pats continue to claim this and Revenue are not happy.

The Irish at home are in most cases completely skint. Revenue has started looking to the Irish with money – the expats – to fill their coffers. While Revenue have the powers/connections to contact you here to get their tax, they are not likely to do so as it would cost them too much. However, as home owners in Ireland, they will get you eventually if you try to sell. Fines & penalties can be substantial and the longer you leave it the higher they get.

It's not all doom and gloom, for those of you that are making losses on your rentals (for example, still sending money home to cover the mortgage) you can get a fairly big refund in your Australian tax return for your Irish losses. You also won't pay tax in Ireland; you just have to submit an annual return to keep them off your back. The amount of refund available in Australia depends on how much you have to send home every month and how much tax you are paying here. Make sure you ask your Australian accountant about this as in my experience to date – none of them seem to know unless they are an ex-pat and use it themselves.