Rental income tax Ireland 2026: a worked example, from rent to preliminary tax

Rental income tax Ireland, in short: you pay income tax on your rental profit – the rent less allowable expenses, mortgage interest and wear and tear – at your marginal rate of 20% or 40%, plus USC and, for most landlords, PRSI. In 2026 a landlord who meets the conditions also gets up to €1,000 off the income tax through the Residential Premises Rental Income Relief. In the worked example below, an apartment let at €1,800 a month, the bill for 2026 is €3,215.60: 36% of the profit and almost all of the year's cash surplus.

The timing is what catches landlords out. With net rental income over €5,000 you file a Form 11, and by 31 October 2026 – 18 November 2026 if you pay and file on ROS – you file the 2025 return, pay the 2025 balance and pay preliminary tax for 2026, all at once. Forget an expense or let an RTB registration lapse and you pay too much twice: in the balance and again in the preliminary tax that follows.

How rental profit is worked out (Case V in one minute)

Revenue taxes rent from Irish property under Schedule D, Case V. The steps are the same whether you let one apartment or five:

1. Start with the gross rent for the calendar year (1 January to 31 December).
2. Deduct the allowable expenses and the deductible mortgage interest, property by property.
3. Deduct capital allowances (wear and tear) and any Case V losses carried forward from earlier years.
4. Add the result to your other income. The profit is taxed at your highest rate, plus USC and PRSI.

With several properties, Revenue wants a profit or loss for each one first, then the total. A rental loss can only be carried forward against future Irish rental profits, never against your salary.

If your non-PAYE income after expenses is no more than €5,000, and the gross no more than €30,000, a PAYE worker can declare the rent on a Form 12 in myAccount. Above either limit you must register for self-assessment and file a Form 11 through ROS.

Expenses you can claim – and the ones Revenue refuses

The cost must relate to the letting and be revenue, not capital, in nature. Revenue's lists of allowed and not allowed expenses come down to this:

Wear and tear on furniture and appliances

Furniture, fittings and white goods are capital, so instead of deducting the cost you claim a wear and tear allowance of 12.5% of the cost a year for eight years. A €6,400 furnishing pack gives €800 a year until it has been fully claimed.

Pre-letting and retrofitting

Two targeted deductions sit on top of the normal rules. If a residential property has been vacant for at least six months, pre-letting expenses in the 12 months before it is let again can be deducted up to €10,000 per property, for spending up to 31 December 2027. The deduction is clawed back if you stop letting the property within four years.

If you get an SEAI grant for energy upgrades, the retrofitting deduction covers your own cost after the grant, up to €10,000 per property, for works carried out by 31 December 2028. From 2026 it applies to up to three properties and is claimed in the year you spend the money.

Mortgage interest and the RTB registration condition

Interest on a loan used to buy, improve or repair a residential letting has been fully deductible again since 1 January 2019. The condition is that every tenancy in the property is registered with the Residential Tenancies Board. Revenue's manual on RTB registration is blunt: there is no apportionment. If one tenancy in a dwelling is unregistered, all the interest on that dwelling is lost for the year.

Three details catch people out:

• Revenue treats the condition as met if the registration is in place by the return filing date for that year.
• Registering late costs an extra €10 a month on top of the €40 fee, but it can restore interest that was refused, within the usual four-year limit.
• Interest counts only while the property is let, or between lettings if you don't live there in the meantime.

Since 4 April 2022 every tenancy must be registered every year, within a month of its anniversary. With several tenancies, an RTB tenancy register with renewal warnings keeps those dates in one place.

Worked example: one apartment, twelve months of figures

Even with one property, that is nine lines from bank statements, a lender's statement, invoices and a furniture list. With two or three properties and shared costs, it's easy to drop one.

Rental income tax Ireland 2026: income tax, USC, PRSI and the relief

Aoife's salary already uses her tax credits and standard rate band, so every euro of rental profit is taxed at 40%. These are the 2026 figures from Revenue's rate tables:

Because the PRSI rate changed on 1 October, self-assessed income for 2026 is charged at a blended rate of 4.2375% – nine months at 4.2% and three at 4.35% – as the Department of Social Protection sets out. Revenue used the same method for 2025 (4.125%). The relief reduces income tax only, not USC or PRSI. Under Revenue's manual on the relief, Aoife qualifies because on 31 December 2026 she owns the apartment, it is let under an RTB-registered tenancy, she is LPT compliant and she holds tax clearance. If she stops letting it within four years of the first year she claimed, the relief is clawed back.

Looking ahead to 2027: Budget 2027, announced on 6 October 2026, raises the standard rate band to €46,500 for a single person and the top of the 2% USC band to €30,300, subject to the Finance Bill. No extension of the rental income relief was announced, so under current law 2027, at €1,000, is its last year.

Preliminary tax: the 90%, 100% and 105% options

Preliminary tax is your payment on account of the income tax, USC and PRSI for the current year. To avoid interest it must be at least the lowest of:

• 90% of the final liability for the current year;
• 100% of the liability for the previous year; or
• 105% of the liability for the year before that – only if you pay by direct debit, and not if that year's liability was nil.

For 2026 the deadline is Saturday 31 October 2026. If you both pay and file on ROS, it moves to Wednesday 18 November 2026 (eBrief No. 034/26).

Aoife doesn't pay by direct debit, so her minimum is €2,780: 100% of last year's figure, which is already fixed. The 90% route only works if your estimate holds: if the final 2026 figure turns out higher – a rent increase, or a cost Revenue treats as capital – the payment falls short and interest runs from the due date. In your first year as a landlord, preliminary tax may not be needed at all.

Records to keep through the year so the Form 11 is easy

• Rent received for each property and month, including arrears and rent paid in advance.
• Every invoice and receipt, tagged to a property and marked as revenue or capital.
• The lender's annual interest statement for each loan – interest only, not capital.
• RTB registration confirmations and the renewal date of every tenancy.
• A list of furniture and appliances with date and cost, for wear and tear.
• LPT receipts and your tax clearance status – both decide the relief on 31 December.

Revenue expects records to be kept for six years. A cost shared between properties needs a split you can explain. Setting aside a twelfth of the expected bill each month – €268 for Aoife – turns 31 October into a payment, not a scramble.

This is general information, not tax advice, and it doesn't replace your accountant or the Form 11.