Mortgage interest relief

Mortgage interest relief ended on 1 January 2021. The information below describes how mortgage interest relief worked when it was available.

Mortgage interest relief was a tax relief based on the amount of qualifying mortgage interest that you paid in a given tax year for your principal private residence (your home). Mortgages taken out after 31 December 2012 did not qualify for mortgage interest relief.

To qualify for tax relief on mortgage interest repayments, you must have paid interest on money that you borrowed to purchase, repair or improve your sole or main residence.

Relief was subject to upper limits or thresholds, which depended on your personal situation and whether you were a first-time buyer.

Mortgage start date and entitlement to relief

Your entitlement to mortgage interest relief depended on the start date of your mortgage:

• If you took out a mortgage in 2003 or earlier, your entitlement expired in 2009.
• If you took out a mortgage between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2012, your entitlement to relief expired in 2020.
• If you took out a mortgage after 31 December 2012, you were not entitled to mortgage interest relief.

How the relief worked

Mortgage interest relief was administered via Tax Relief at Source (TRS). This meant that your mortgage lender gave you the benefit of tax relief on the amount of mortgage interest paid. The lender did this by reducing your mortgage repayment by the amount of tax relief you were entitled to in each tax year. Any amendments to this tax relief - for example, if there was a change in interest rates - were made automatically by your lender.

Normally, you did not claim mortgage interest relief in an annual tax return because it was given directly to you by your mortgage lender. However, you could still claim tax relief from your Revenue office for interest paid on non-secured loans used for qualifying purposes.

There were different rates and thresholds for mortgage interest relief, depending on your circumstances.

• The rate of relief depended on when you took out your mortgage and whether you were a first-time buyer.
• The amount of mortgage interest on which you could get relief was subject to upper limits or thresholds. The threshold that applied to you depended on your situation.

There was also a tapered reduction in the percentage of interest that qualified for relief between 2018 and 2020, as the relief was reduced before it ended in 2021.

Revenue published details of how to calculate the mortgage interest relief you got each year.

Mortgage interest relief came to an end on 1 January 2021. You can no longer apply for the relief.