a curious thing

[waider]

I'm currently poking through listings on DAFT and finding myself somewhat perplexed at the amount of listings which state, "Rent Allowance Not Accepted". Rent Allowance is a government benefit amounting to, I think, up to a few hundred euro per year. I claim it myself, since I'm eligible for it and I pay tax and so forth. The only reason I can think of that someone might say they're not accepting rent allowance claimants is that they're not declaring their rental property to the government. The thing is:

• Last time I checked, the government had waived the requirement for the tenant to obtain the landlord's SSI number, so the landlord simply doesn't need to know you're on rent allowance;
• If you go around advertising your property as "No Rent Allowance", you're pretty much asking the Revenue folk to investigate;
• Various bits of tenanty legislation, such as the requirement for a rent book and what not, will ultimately leave a paper trail should the Revenue investigate post facto, with the added benefit that they charge interest on unpaid tax;
• If you, as a landlord, DO somehow tick off your tenant when it's obvious that you're not declaring your full tax liability, there's nothing stopping the tenant from casually reporting the fact to the Revenue, ensuring you get the rubber glove treatment (well, ok, I don't know how often this actually happens, or how likely they are to pursue it)

Really, I don't understand these people.

Comments

I doubt it

[mopti.livejournal.com]

Rent allowance, I would suspect, is not the tax allowance but the (what used to be before they merged them all into the Healt Service Executive) health board payments to the landlords of people who are not earning enough to pay the going rate for rented accommodation.