Further cut in home loan relief on cards
HARD-pressed homeowners are facing further cuts to Mortgage Interest Relief in next month's emergency Budget.
The Government is poised to trim the amount of tax relief received at source by those with home loans -- following the success of a stealth raid on the sector in the Budget last October.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan then reduced the amount of allowable relief on mortgage interest payments -- and almost no one noticed.
The 'secret tax hike' was cloaked by successive reductions in the mortgage interest rate, which have seen borrowers paying less in recent months.
Now the minister is set to repeat the trick, after the apparent success of a 5pc reduction in mortgage interest relief, which came into effect in January.
The move hit 1,046,974 existing mortgage holders -- but most will not have noticed.
Financial institutions have been telling customers who began complaining last month about their mortgage costs that the Government is responsible for gobbling up the reductions.
- Senan Molony
