Landlord tax cuts suggests desperation on housing from Government

Labour leader and housing spokesperson Ivana Bacik has criticised the Housing Minister’s proposals to give landlords a tax break in Budget 2024.

Deputy Bacik said:

“Fianna Fáil’s latest kite flying on tax breaks for landlords suggests a sense of desperation from Government, and would do nothing to address the real causes of our housing crisis.

"Is Minister O’Brien really serious that we should treat the taxation of working people differently to the income that people generate from rental income?

“It’s fundamentally wrong that people paying rent should be paying more tax than landlords. Due to systemic failings in housing, we now effectively have a situation where one generation is paying for the income of another generation. This proposal from Government would represent a tax break for the wealthy.

“There’s no evidence to suggest that taxation is the reason why landlords are leaving the market.

“Introducing a landlord tax break would do absolutely nothing to address the spiralling cost of rent and the chronic levels of tenancy uncertainty which are the primary drivers of the crisis in the rental sector and of the appalling numbers of people and children in homelessness.”