Budget 2024‍

The key Budget points are outlined here …

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Personal Tax

• USC has been cut from 4.5% to 4%.
• Rate band will rise to €42,000.
• Threshold to the 4% rate of USC will be raised to €25,760.
• Minimum wage has been increased by €1.40 an hour to €12.70 an hour.
• Personal, Employee PAYE and earned income tax credits are being increased by €100 each.
• Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contribution rates will increase 0.1% from 1 October next year.

‍Cost of living

• Extension of the 9% reduced VAT rate for gas and electricity for another 12 months.
• Three energy credits of €150 each to help with bills over winter. They will be provided in three instalments between the end of 2023 and April next year.
• A €300 lump sum payment will be made to recipients of the Fuel Allowance in the last quarter of this year.

Housing and Renters

• A one-year Mortgage Interest Tax Relief for homeowners with an outstanding mortgage balance of between €80,000 and €500,000 from December 31 has been confirmed.
• Relief will be available on the increased interest paid on the mortgage in the calendar year 2023 as compared with the amount paid in 2022, at the standard rate of 20% income tax.
• The relief will be capped at €1,250 per property.
• The Help-to-Buy scheme is being extended to the end of 2025.
• The Rent Tax Credit will be increased from €500 a year to €750 a year.
• Parents who pay for their student children who have tenancies in 'Rent a Room' or 'digs' accommodation will now be able to claim the Rent Tax Credit. This will be backdated to allow for claims to be made for the 2022 and 2023 tax years.

Social welfare

• Weekly social protection payments will increase by €12.
• The Qualified Child Increase will increase by €4 to €46 per week for under 12s and to €54 per week for over 12s.
• An additional €200 will be paid to those receiving the Living Alone Allowance.
• The Christmas Bonus to those in receipt of regular Social Protection payments will be paid in early December.
• A once-off double week "Cost of Living Support" payment to all qualifying Social Protection recipients will be paid in January.
• A special, once-off payment of €400 will be made before Christmas to those who receive the Carer's Support Grant, Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension and Domiciliary Care Allowance.
• A double payment of the Foster Care allowance will also be made this year.

Education and Children

• Free school books for students in the first three years of secondary school.
• Families with an income of less than €100,000 will have college fees for undergraduate students halved to €1,500.
• Other families will see college fees for full-time undergraduate students cut by €1,000.
• The fee waiver on school transport services will be extended for a further year while the fee waiver for students sitting State exams will also be extended.
• The home carer tax credit and the single person child carer credit will be increased by €100 and the incapacitated child tax credit is being increased by €200.
• A double payment of Child Benefit, worth an additional €140 for each child, will be made to all qualifying households before Christmas.
• The National Childcare Scheme will see a further 25% reduction in childcare costs.
• The statutory foster care rate will be increased by the end of 2024 by €75 per week for children under 12 and €73 per week for children over 12, bringing it to €400 and €425 a week, respectively.

Climate

• A new Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund will be established which will grow by €2bn for seven consecutive years when it will reach €14bn.
• The accelerated capital allowances scheme for energy efficient equipment is being extended for a further two years.
• The tax disregard in respect of personal income received by households who sell residual electricity from micro-generation back to the national grid is being doubled.
• The zero VAT rate on the supply and installation of solar panels is being extended to schools from 1 January 2024.
• VRT relief for battery electric vehicles is being extended to the end of 2025.
• The rate per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted for petrol and diesel will go up from €48.50 to €56.00 from 11 October as per the trajectory set out in the Finance Act 2020.
• Forecourt fuel prices will increase from midnight tonight - adding €1.28 and €1.48 to the cost of a 60-litre fill of petrol and auto diesel, respectively.
• However, Minister McGrath said an increase in fuel excise of 8 cent on a litre of petrol and 6cent on diesel, as well as 3.4 cent on marked diesel, due at the end of October would instead come into effect in two equal instalments on 1 April and 1 August next year.
• There will be a €7.50 increase on the current rate of Carbon Tax that is applied per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions by carbon fuels.

Cigarettes and vaping

• The excise duty on a packet of 20 cigarettes will be increased by 75 cents - bringing the total price to €16.75.
• A domestic tax on e-cigarettes and vaping products has been proposed by Minister McGrath for next year's Budget.

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