Rent a Room relief and the €14,000 cliff edge
Rent a Room relief exempts up to €14,000 a year from income tax. Go one euro over and the whole amount becomes taxable, not just the excess. How the cliff edge works.
If you rent a room in your own home, income up to €14,000 a year is exempt from income tax, Universal Social Charge and Pay Related Social Insurance. It is one of the few reliefs that is genuinely simple, right up until you go over the limit.
- Room income of €13,900
- Taxable amount €0
- Room income of €14,000
- Taxable amount €0
- Room income of €14,100
- Taxable amount €14,100
The last hundred euro of income makes the previous fourteen thousand taxable. If you are close to the limit, the arithmetic on taking another week's rent is worth doing before you agree to it.
What counts towards the limit
The gross amount you receive, not what is left after costs. Money for meals, laundry, utilities or any other service you provide goes into the same total. That is the part that pushes people over without them noticing, because it does not feel like rent.
Who can use it
- Individual taxpayers only. A company cannot claim it.
- The room has to be in your own home, and you have to be living there.
- Jointly assessed couples share the relief rather than getting one each.
The part that surprises people
Somebody renting a room in your home is a licensee rather than a tenant. The Residential Tenancies Acts do not apply, which means the rent control rules do not apply either, and neither do the security of tenure protections a tenant has. That cuts both ways, and it is worth both sides understanding it before anybody moves in.
The relief still has to be claimed on your Income Tax Return even when the income is under the limit and no tax is due on it.
Sources
- Rent a Room relief exemption limit, Revenue
Figures checked 4 August 2026.
This is information, not legal or tax advice. Every figure here links to the source it came from, and that source is the one to rely on.