CONSTRUCTION GROUPS HAVE welcomed a new scheme to give a tax incentive for homeowners to carry out home improvements.
The home renovation tax incentive (HRI) scheme will run for the next two years and give a tax credit of 13.5 per cent on money spent on renovations between €5,000 up to a maximum of €30,000.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said during his budget speech that qualifying work would include work such as window-fitting, plumbing, tiling and plastering.
The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) has said that the incentive will encourage people to use registered builders and discourage black market construction which is damaging standards in the sector.
“Given recent issues such as Priory Hall, it is imperative that standards are upheld which may not be the case with operators in the shadow economy,” according to SCSI president Micheál O’Connor.
Pat Barry of the Irish Green Building Council also said that the initiative will hinder “tax dodging cowboys” in the shadow economy but insisted that more targeted measures to boost environmentally friendly construction are still required:
However the tax rebates above a certain level, must be targeted at measurable improvement in energy performance of the house, rather than just boosting construction for its own sake.
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