2,000 waiting on mortgage relief
A decision to change the MIR entitlement was announced in the supplementary budget in April. However, the day before the decision took effect Revenue said it did not have enough time to determine exactly who remained eligible and said it was temporarily suspending the relief for a massive number of mortgage-holders until their status could be ascertained.
New figures from Revenue show, despite efforts to clear up the situation, 2,000 of the 321,000 homeowners who had the relief suspended still remain without MIR more than six months on.
Revenue said it is currently processing 2,000 completed responses to requests for information.
“This processing task is well under way and will be completed as soon as possible and payment of relief will in appropriate cases be reactivated and any arrears of relief credited to the accounts,” said a Revenue spokeswoman.
Director of the Irish Mortgage Corporation, Frank Conway said: “It would appear that the changes announced by the Government in respect to MIR in the last budget was confusing for many parties. Certainly in the case of Revenue, it appears they were given a massive workload to clarify and implement the new rules. A significant level of complexity was introduced and it is not clear if this was intentional or not. At the time, I had expected that the Government would have pulled MIR for all but first-time buyers, which thankfully, they did not.”
Mr Conway is calling on the Government to continue to offer MIR for residential mortgage holders in the upcoming budget.
“Families are struggling and 2010 has the potential to make matters worse for many more people as there is likely to be an increase in mortgage repayments as well as increases to taxes and further reductions to incomes.
“Many people are stuck with legacy debts from the boom times and people will need all the help they can get.”
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