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Rent Tax Credit 2026: €1,000 back, and why the RTB registration number matters

The credit is 20% of rent paid, up to €1,000 a year (€2,000 for a jointly assessed couple) for 2024 to 2028. Revenue asks for the RT number of your tenancy. How to find it, what to do if the landlord never registered, and how to claim in myAccount.

Published 22 September 2026 · checked against the Residential Tenancies Act and RTB guidance on 22 September 2026 · 5 min read

The colourful houses of the Long Walk in Galway seen across the harbour

The Rent Tax Credit is the one piece of tenant law that pays you rather than the other way round: up to €1,000 a year off your Income Tax for 2024 to 2028, €2,000 for a jointly assessed couple. Plenty of renters who qualify never claim, and the line that stops them is usually the one asking for the RTB registration number.

The numbers, from Revenue

The credit is 20% of the rent you paid in the tax year, up to a ceiling. For 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 the ceiling is €1,000 for a single person and €2,000 for a jointly assessed married couple or civil partners. For 2022 and 2023 it was €500 and €1,000. The credit only reduces Income Tax: if your Income Tax bill for the year was €700, the credit is worth €700, not €1,000. It does not touch USC or PRSI. Revenue’s own page on the Rent Tax Credit is short and worth reading in full.

You qualify for rent on your own home, on a second home you use to attend an approved course or to be near work, or on a home your child uses for an approved course (a PhD does not count as one). You cannot be on HAP, Rent Supplement or RAS for that home. Parent and child cannot be landlord and tenant for the credit; other relatives can be, but only where the tenancy is one that must be registered with the RTB, so a room in an aunt’s house does not qualify while a room in a stranger’s house does.

Why Revenue asks for the RTB number

The claim form asks for the registration number the RTB gave your tenancy. It is the number that begins RT, in the format RT-XXXX-XXXXXXXX, and it proves two things at once: that the tenancy exists as you describe it, and that your landlord did the one thing the law asks of every landlord, register it. Revenue’s guidance manual for the credit puts it this way: you should take all reasonable steps to obtain the number, you will not be prevented from claiming if you cannot, and Revenue may ask for it later and withdraw the credit if it is still missing then.

So the number is not a gate. It is a promise you may be asked to keep. That makes it worth knowing whether your tenancy is registered before you claim, not after a letter from Revenue two years on.

Where to find the number

  1. The RTB’s letter. When a landlord registers, the RTB writes to the landlord and to every tenant named on the registration with the RT number. It arrives by post unless you asked for email. Check the pile from the month you moved in.
  2. Your landlord or agent. They have it on their RTB account. Asking in writing is a reasonable step; keep the message.
  3. The public register. Since 1 March 2026 the RTB Rent Register shows every registered tenancy by local electoral area with its RT number, rent, floor area, bedrooms and BER, though not the address. If a row matches your home and your start date, that is your number. Our check does the matching from your Eircode and tells you when nothing fits.
  4. The RTB. Check the register on rtb.ie, or ask the RTB directly whether a tenancy at your address is registered.

If there is no registration

That is the landlord’s problem, and since 14 September 2026 a measurable one: the RTB can issue a €100 fixed payment notice for a tenancy that was never registered, and another €100 for one whose annual renewal lapsed (sections 144 and 144A), on top of the existing route to prosecution (the fees, dates and fines are in our RTB registration guide). Registration also matters to the landlord for their own tax, since unregistered tenancies lose the interest deduction against rental income.

For your claim: enter what you have, say that the tenancy is not registered, and keep your tenancy agreement and proof of payment. Send the landlord a short written request to register, which is the reasonable step Revenue wants to see. If they refuse, the RTB’s page on how to register is worth forwarding to them, and reporting the non-registration costs you nothing. An unregistered landlord also cannot bring a dispute against you at the RTB, while you can still bring one against them.

How to claim

For rent paid in 2026, PAYE taxpayers can claim during the year: sign in to myAccount, open PAYE Services, choose Manage your tax for the current year, Add new credits, and under You and your family select Rent Tax Credit. The 2025 credit is claimed on your Income Tax Return for 2025. Self-assessed taxpayers claim through ROS on the Form 11. Revenue’s how to claim page has the exact clicks. You will need the address and Eircode of the home, the landlord’s name and address, the dates, the rent paid in the year and, where you have it, the RT number.

Two people sharing a home each claim on their own share of the rent, up to their own ceiling. A couple assessed jointly claim once, up to €2,000.

Is your tenancy on the register?

Enter the Eircode and we check the public RTB register for a registration matching your home and start date, and tell you what to say to the landlord if there is none.

Check my tenancy is registered

Questions

How much is the Rent Tax Credit in 2026?

20% of the rent you paid in the year, capped at €1,000 for a single person or €2,000 for a jointly assessed married couple or civil partners. The cap is per person, not per property, so paying rent on two homes in a year does not double it. It reduces Income Tax only, not USC or PRSI, so you need to have paid at least that much Income Tax to get the full amount.

Which years can I still claim?

The credit runs from 2022 to 2028. For 2022 and 2023 the cap was €500 (€1,000 for a couple). You can go back four years, so a claim for 2022 must be in by the end of 2026. 2025 is claimed on your Income Tax Return; 2026 can be claimed during the year in myAccount.

My landlord will not give me the RT number. Can I still claim?

Yes. Revenue says you must take reasonable steps to get it, and that you can claim without it if you cannot. Look the tenancy up on the RTB register yourself first; the confirmation letter the RTB posts to each named tenant at registration has the number too. Revenue may ask for it later and withdraw the credit if it never appears.

The tenancy was never registered. What then?

Registration is the landlord's duty, within a month of the tenancy starting and every year after (sections 134 to 136), and since 14 September 2026 the RTB can issue a €100 fixed payment notice for not doing it. You can still claim the credit and tell Revenue why there is no number. You can also report the non-registration to the RTB; the landlord, not you, carries the consequences.

I rent a room in the owner's house. Does it count?

Yes. A licence arrangement such as rent-a-room or digs does not need RTB registration, and the credit is still available for the rent you pay. Revenue asks for the type of arrangement on the claim. The exception is a related landlord: rent-a-room with a relative does not qualify.

Section numbers refer to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 as amended, including by the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2025 and the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; Threshold and the RTB advise tenants and landlords free of charge.