The Help to Buy (HTB) incentive is a scheme for first-time property buyers. It will help you with the deposit you need to buy or build a new house or apartment. You must buy or build the property to live in as your home.
Where you meet the required conditions, you will receive a refund of:
and
The refund will be from the four tax years prior to when you make your application. The refund will not include any refunds you have already claimed.
To claim HTB, you must:
To qualify, you must not have previously bought or built a house or apartment, either on your own or jointly with any other person. If you are buying or building the new property with other people, they must also be first-time buyers. If you have inherited or been gifted a property it will not affect your eligibility.
The contractor you are purchasing your home from must be approved by Revenue. You can check the list of approved developers and contractors to make sure that your developer or contractor is approved.
To qualify for HTB, the property that you build or buy must be:
The property must never have been used, or have been suitable to use, as a residential home. If the property was non-residential, but has been converted for residential use, it may qualify for HTB. If you buy or build the property as an investment, it does not qualify for HTB.
The purchase value of a new build means the price that you bought it for. The value of the property must be €500,000 or less to qualify for HTB.
You must take out your mortgage on the property with a qualifying lender. This loan must be used only for buying or building the property. The loan must be at least 70% of the purchase value of the property. This is known as the loan to value ratio.
You are allowed to have a guarantor on the loan.
The amount that you can claim is the lesser of:
The maximum payment is €20,000 per property (increased to €30,000 for enhanced relief). This cap applies regardless of how many people enter into a contract to buy a house.
Universal Social Charge (USC) or Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) are not considered when calculating how much you can claim.
For further details please see Help to Buy (HTB) Part 15-01-46 and Summary Guide for Help to Buy Applicants.
If you bought or built the property between 19 July 2016 and 31 December 2016, the refund will be paid directly to you.
If you buy a new build after 1 January 2017, the refund will be paid to the contractor.
If you self-build the property after 1 January 2017, the refund will be paid to a bank account you hold with your loan provider.
Before you apply, you must be registered for either:
Before you apply for HTB, you must submit a Income tax Return for each year you wish to apply for a payment and pay any outstanding tax due.
Use myAccount to submit an Income tax Return for the years from 2017. Online Income tax Returns are pre-populated with your pay and tax details.
If you need to submit a paper Income tax return (form 12) for 2014, 2015 or 2016 , you can download the form and submit on paper. When you have completed this form, you can scan it and then upload it in MyEnquiries. To do this, you should:
If you are self-assessed, you must be fully tax compliant and have tax clearance. You must have filed your income tax returns and paid all the tax that you owe for any years where you were self-employed. Use Revenue Online Service (ROS) to submit your Form 11.
You may have signed your contract to buy a new build or drew down the first part of your mortgage for a self-build between 1 January and 31 March 2021. If so, you may select either the:
This will allow you to select the four-year period which is of most benefit to you.
You may select 2020 as a year in your HTB application once you:
and
The Statement of Liabilities is not issued until after your return has been submitted.
Use myAccount or Revenue’s Online Service (ROS) to apply for HTB online.
There are two stages to the online process:
You can apply as an individual, or part of a group that is buying or building a property. You must complete a declaration and select the years you want to use for a refund. If you are tax compliant, your application will be approved. You will be provided with an application number and a summary of the maximum amount you can claim. You will also be given a 6-digit access code separately through MyEnquiries.
Keep a safe note of both of these codes as you will need to provide them to your lender. If you are buying your home, you will also need these codes for your qualifying contractor. If you are self-building you will need these codes for your solicitor. Your contractor or solicitor will require this information to verify what you have submitted.
If you make a HTB application but have not yet made a claim, your application will expire on 31 December. You can then re-apply and make a new HTB application.
You can make your claim once you have either:
Login to HTB through myAccount or Revenue’s Online Service (ROS)and complete the following steps below.
Upload evidence of your mortgage and the following information about your application:
You will be asked to confirm details about the:
If you are applying with other people you will also need to confirm the portion of the refund to be refunded to each person. If you are self-building, you will need to provide the BIC and IBAN of the loan bank account.
Once you have submitted your claim you will be provided with a claim reference.
Please ensure that you have carefully checked all the information you input before you sign and submit the claim.
If any of the information you have provided is incorrect, you must:
This must be done before you continue to step 3.
Once you have submitted your claim you should advise your developer or contractor (or solicitor if you are self-building).
Provide them with your claim reference (issued to you after step 2) and access code (issued to you when you submitted your application). Before you receive any refund, the information you have provided will need to be verified by the:
The refund that you finally receive is limited to 5% of the purchase price of the house. This may mean that it is different to the maximum relief amount that you were given at application stage.
There are three types of applicants who can apply for the Help to Buy (HTB) incentive:
See the Summary Guide for applicants for further information on this process.
| Contact Information | |
| Applicants | Use MyEnquiries in myAccount, if you are an employee and pay tax through PAYE
Revenue’s Online Service (ROS), if you are self-employed. |
| Revenue Website | All information regarding HTB Scheme in this document is taken from Revenue Website
https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/help-to-buy-incentive/index.aspx |
| Info for Applicants | https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/documents/htb-summary-applicants.pdf |
