Budget 2019

Landlord and Tenant

Landlord Tax Relief: A full interest relief will be available for landlords in respect of loans taken out to purchase, improve or repair residential property from 1 January 2019 rather than 1 January 2021.

Property

Local Property Tax: The Minister for Finance stated that any future changes will be “moderate and affordable” and that a report would be furnished shortly.

Stamp duty: No change to stamp duty rates on property.

Social Homes: 10,000 new social homes in 2019 through construction, buying and leasing.

Tax

VAT (Hotels): The special 9% rate for hospitality sector to be abolished and will return to 13.5%

Young Trained Farmer Relief: The exemption available for the transfer of land to young trained farmers has been extended for a further 3 years to 31 December 2021.

Inheritance Tax: The tax free threshold for inheritances between parents and children (Group A) increased from €310,000 to €320,000.

Income Tax (Universal Social Charge): The USC tax on incomes between €19,300 and €70,000 will fall by 0.25% making it 4.5%.

Employment

Parental Leave: Two weeks’ extra paid parental leave to every parent of a child under one year old from November 2019.

Self Employed: The earned income tax credit will increase by €200 to €1,350.

National Minimum Wage: An increase from €9.55 to €9.80 was announced.

Brexit

Brexit Fund: New measures worth more than €700m to protect against its effect on Ireland.

To increase investment in higher education courses, a fund of €300 million is being made available from 2020-2024.

A further €300 million will be made available to lend to SMEs and the agriculture/food sector.

€60 million is being put into improving resilience in the farming sector and productivity in the food sector as well as to provide extra resources regarding the regulatory requirements of Brexit.

€110 million is to be made available for Brexit measures across a wide range of departments, one being funding for customs requirements.