Finance Act 2022 legislated for a new Non-Resident Landlord Withholding Tax (NLWT) regime, which came into operation by Commencement Order on 1 July 2023. In the new regime, a ‘collection agent’ for a non-Irish resident landlord will no longer be chargeable to tax on the rental income of the landlord if the collection agent complies with the requirements of the NLWT. These requirements include providing certain information to Revenue about the non-resident landlord and their Irish property and remitting tax of 20% of the rent each time rent is paid to the landlord.

Similarly, tenants have access to the online NLWT system to provide information and remit tax deducted from rent paid to their non-Irish resident landlord. The tenant will not have to file an income tax return simply because they are remitting tax in respect of rent paid to a non-resident landlord.

The changes introduced to the regime will mean that individual non-resident landlords will be able to submit an income tax return in their personal capacity. This has been long sought by the Institute to alleviate the complexity and cumbersome administration for non-resident landlords in complying with their tax obligations up to now. Tax withheld and remitted through the NLWT, by the collection agent or tenant, will be credited to the landlord’s tax record. Any excess of tax deducted will be refunded once the landlord’s income tax return is filed after the year end.

The Institute had extensive engagement with Revenue on practical tax administration issues for individuals who are non-resident landlords at the TALC Collections Sub-Committee since 2019. To help members to understand the requirements of the NLWT and the options available when advising non-resident landlords, we hosted a webinar with Revenue on 19 June 2023 on the new NLWT system.

The recording of the webinar, links to Revenue guidance and other information resources are available on this page.