Widening rent tax credit to parents paying for digs a big win, says Harris

Widening the rent tax credit to parents paying for their student children to stay in digs is a “big win”, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has said.

He said the move announced in the budget would see parents in line to save 1,750 euro, as they can claim the 750 euro rent credit for 2024 and backdated payments of 500 euro for both his year and last.

Mr Harris said the tax break was one of a series of measures that would benefit the higher and third level education sector.

The Union of Students Ireland (USI) has welcomed some of the steps in Budget 2024, including the extension of a reduction in the student contribution to tuition fees by 1,000 euro, down to 2,000 euro.

Students whose families earn less than 100,000 euro can claim an additional 500 euro discount.

But USI said the budget failed to tackle medium to long-term problems facing students, particularly significant accommodation shortages.

Before the budget Mr Harris had called for the rent tax credit to be increased from 500 euro to 1,000 euro. It was ultimately increased to 750 euro.

He said he was not disappointed with the level of increase.

“On the rent tax credits, it’s good to be ambitious,” he said of his call for 1,000 euro.

“But I’m very pleased with it, because the big win for my department, in terms of those that I particularly look out for – students and their families – is the backdating piece and the extension to the digs,” he said.

“So in fairness to my colleague, Minister McGrath (Finance Minister Michael McGrath), and I want to thank him for this explicit mention in the tax book on Budget Day, that the tax relief can now be claimed by parents of students in digs if the parents paid the rent, and then, even better, you can get it backdated since the introduction.

“So that means someone who has a child in digs for the three years is 1,750 euro better off as a result of the budget just in relation to that rent aspect.”