Landlord Accounting in Ireland: Rents and Costs | HelloBooks Bookkeeping for landlords in Ireland: residential lettings are VAT exempt, the option to tax commercial lets, and tracking rent and costs by property.
Landlords in Ireland need tidy records of rent received and costs paid for each property, for their tax return and for their own decisions. VAT is usually simple: Revenue states that lettings are exempt, and residential lettings cannot be opted into VAT. Commercial landlords can sometimes opt to tax. HelloBooks keeps rent and costs by property, captures invoices, and gives your accountant a clean year to work from.
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Lettings of property are exempt from VAT, according to Revenue. A landlord may opt to tax a letting, but not where the property is used for residential purposes, along with other exceptions. In practice a residential landlord charges no VAT on rent and cannot reclaim VAT on repairs, fees or furniture, so those costs are recorded including VAT.
A landlord of shops, offices or industrial units may be able to opt to tax a letting, charge VAT on the rent and reclaim VAT on related costs. The option has long-term consequences, including under the capital goods scheme, so it is a decision for your accountant or tax adviser, not your software.
Set up an income account and a group of cost accounts for each property, or a consistent naming convention if you have many. Then rent, repairs, insurance, agent fees and mortgage interest land against the right property, and the profit for each is a report rather than a spreadsheet.
Most landlords collect rent by standing order, which makes the bank statement a reliable record of who paid and when.
Upload bank statements and HelloBooks matches rent receipts to tenants. Arrears show up quickly, and a tenant who pays a week late every month is visible in the history rather than in your memory.
A deposit belongs to the tenant until it is applied or returned, so record it as a liability, not as rent. When it is returned or used for damage, the entry clears and the history shows what happened. Keep the tenancy agreement with the first deposit entry.
If a letting agent collects rent and deducts fees, record the gross rent as income and the agent’s fee as a cost, using the agent’s statement as the document. The net amount in the bank then matches the two.
Repairs between tenancies are where most landlords lose paperwork, so capture those invoices first.
Photograph invoices from tradespeople and agents as they arrive. HelloBooks reads the supplier and amount and attaches the document to the payment. At year end your accountant has every cost with its evidence, sorted by property.
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