Tax Relief methods that you may be looking for

Taxes have and always will be the stress of most people’s adult life. And there are two sides of the same coin in terms of feelings you may receive when getting your Revenue yearly about your taxes. And last weeks, there are many people who are either ecstatic and relieved and then there are others who are scrambling around to find some way in order to lessen their tax liability.

Either way, you have most likely in one way or another been affected by the wage subsidies that the pandemic has caused. But there are still some things you can do to lessen that tax bill just a little. Of the following hints, if you have not claimed any of them since 2017, you can still be eligible for that period of time.

1: Tuition Fees

With children in third-level education, tuition can cost a fortune. But you can also benefit from tax relief on fees paid for undergraduate programs, postgraduate, IT, and foreign language courses. The relief starts at 20%, meaning that 20% will be returned to your pockets.

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Concern for Housing Supply in Ireland

COVID regulations have hit many markets hard, but possibly the worst be in the housing industry. Due to certain restrictions, the housing supply of homes built between 2020 and 2022 is predicted to be 23,000 fewer than normal. This, combined with the growing demand for housing as well as the built-up saving of household revenue during the pandemic could cause the demand for housing in Ireland to skyrocket, leading to higher pricing. Over the last year, it is predicted that over €13 billion have been saved up by families in Ireland, and with that many households are looking to improve their housing situation at the end of quarantine. The spending demand of these households far exceeds to the market supply of housing to be offered to said customers.

The Central Bank predicts that there will be 18,500 new housing completions in 2020, and in 2021 and 2022 that number will rise to around 22,000. This in total will be 23,000 fewer houses entering the market in these three years compared to the normal growth rate of housing supply prior to …

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House Buying in Ireland

Buying a new home or property is possibly one of the most daunting tasks out there, especially for first-time buyers or international buyers. There are many regulations to keep in mind, and here is just a small list of actions to take that will make this process so much easier.

1: Builder: Contact a local builder and request them to look at the prospective property. They will be able to tell you how much additional work needs to be done for the property, and generally advise the state of the property.

2: Electrician Check: If you have the contact, call in a favor from an electrician to check the wires for issues and maintenance.

3: Structural survey: This will be an investment, and you’ll be surprised at the number of faults this check can find within a property, no matter how pretty the house may look from outside. The usual cost is around €1.5k, but worth it in the long run, if you are to meet large issues.

4: Deposit: Buying international means that you may have to put in …

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Quarantine Leading to a Rise in Property Prices

As the COVID quarantine still impacts our daily lives by forcing people to work from home and limit public interaction, the predicted property prices in Ireland are said to skyrocket as much as 6% this upcoming year. In the newly released annual review today by The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), out of their three agents, two of them predicted an increase in property rates in 2021.

While that 6% is said to be an average across Ireland, different areas are predicted to have slightly varying inflated rates. For example, Dublin, as the area with the highest current prices, is predicted to see an average increase of 3% in property prices. But for other areas such as Leinster and Munster, are predicted to have price increases of 4% and 5 % respectively. Some areas are predicted to see price increase reflecting this past year within the range of 1-3%, yet other areas are predicted to experience price increases that could even reach 8%.

According to SCSI’s vice president; TJ Cronin, many of these seen increases in prices are said …

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Tips to Switching Your Mortgage

Changing your mortgage plan may very well be the best or worst decision you can ever make. If done well, it could relieve you of a lot of financial stress and help save you a large amount of money. This seems like such a big task, so we have broken it down and listed a few tips on how to get started!

First, understand your current situation. What are your scheduled payment amounts and how does that affect your budget? What type of mortgage do you have right now? Do you have an interest-only mortgage, a pension mortgage, an annuity mortgage, or a different type of mortgage? Most importantly would be the current interest rate you are paying. And all these factors can make a difference when changing mortgages and if that transition is for you. For example, with a standard variable rate (the rate you will be charged at the end of your fixed interest rate), switching can save a lot of money.

Second, make sure to do your own research and speak to multiple banks and mortgage brokers. …

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Bank of Ireland’s Marketing Gimmick

Recently, the Bank of Ireland has been accused of a marketing gimmick. The Bank of Ireland has launched a new mortgage product that does not offer cash back. The bank has maintained a high market share. Bank of Ireland has been offering up to 3% in cash back of the value of the mortgage taken out. However, the Bank does not have the lowest rates in the market.

Cash back can be defined as money back from a mortgage. For example, if an individual borrows €200,000 he or she may get back €6,000. The first 2% of cash back is paid at the time the mortgage is taken out. The other 1% is paid at the end of year five.

However, the bank has now introduced a High Value Mortgage Interest Rate with no cash back. The new mortgage product is the first fixed rate product without cash back that the Bank of Ireland has one since the introduction of cash back in 2014.

The High Value Mortgage Interest Rate only applies to people borrowing more than €400,000. The product is also …

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Is a ten year fixed rate a good idea?

Recently KBC introduced a 10 year fixed rate, they are not the first back to have done this, in the past other banks had them but their prices were high, the difference today is that you can get a 10 year fixed rate mortgage for below 3% and that means it’s worth considering.

First of all, why would you want to fix for so long? Obviously the longevity of a guaranteed price in a world where rates are expected to rise over time makes it attractive. This has to be balanced against the likelihood of competitive forces driving down Irish mortgage rates. Currently there is upside down pricing where fixed rates are cheaper than variable rates, how long this will last is anybody’s guess.

What we can do is look at the yield curve in order to get an idea of when rates might go up. Looking at that curve today (the quote date is from the 22nd which is last Friday) we see that yields are still negative a full six years into the future.  What …

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Independent Newspaper mentions Irish Mortgage Brokers

In an article today about mortgages by John Cradden of the Irish Independent we were quoted extensively regarding our thoughts on loans, extracts are below:

Last month saw the official launch of a new mortgage lender here in the form of Australian firm Pepper, who will be lending to the self-employed and those who got into arrears during the downturn but are now back on track.

“Up to now, if you had credit issues you were virtually unbankable, that is set to change,” said Karl Deeter of Irish Mortgage Brokers. “Equally, as banks add bells and whistles to their product suite, you’ll see some will be about flexibility rather than price and that’s a sign of competition in product differentiation coming through.”

He adds that rates will improve with the new competition. “This was what happened in the last credit cycle and will happen again so time will take care of that, but Ireland also has unusually high risk associated with our loans so that has to be factored in.”

The cashback offers are another popular incentive, with …

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Irish Mortgage Brokers mentioned in the Independent

In an article by Sinead Ryan in the Independent we were quoted on several matters:

With all the talk of celebrating the Rising in 2016, it won’t extend to a rising mortgage market, says broker Karl Deeter. “The changes to lending criteria and in particular the Central Bank changes meant that while 90pc LTV (loan to value) mortgages were available, as the year progressed more banks started to withdraw them. Due to the way the figures are going to be reported in 2016 it will be a case of, ‘Want a 90pc mortgage? Get it in January or July’. And that’s because the half-year periods are going to be the times in which they are mostly available.”

One positive change, says Deeter, was that interest rates came down during the year, in particular fixed rates as banks came under pressure to explain Ireland’s excessive rates compared to those enjoyed by our EU neighbours. Although all banks rocked up at the Banking Inquiry, and most were (or tried their best to sound) contrite, the truth is that pillar Bank …

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Mortgage rates falling and set to head even lower

We were never advocates or in agreement with the ‘make government force mortgage rates down’ campaign (albeit on very friendly terms with the campaign promoters). The reason was that rates needed to come down in a natural way or banks would curtail credit or charge more elsewhere, this was a balancing act between sorting out operational costs and back book issues.

The belief we had, and one that does seem to be bearing fruit, was a slower (ie: less popular) road to lower rates, brought about by competition.

This has been happening, it doesn’t make headlines because it’s a slower burn but the trend is under way and it goes like this: more competition equals lower rates, the higher rates spur competition as it attracts new entrants and in time, when matched with a low yield curve, rates will fall.

The introduction of Pepper into the market, along with general competition has meant that the rate reduction cycle has begun. The hallmarks are that firstly, rates are high after a financial crash, that always happens, those high rates bring in …

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