This page explains the rules in plain English, gives you a checklist to work through, and shows how Hoare Chartered Accountants can take the work off you.

On this page: How it works · Fees · The NLWT guide · Landlord checklist · FAQs

Last reviewed 12 November 2026.

Until 30 June 2023, a tenant sent Revenue a paper Form R185 with the 20%, and an Irish collection agent was the person who filed the landlord’s return. Tenants and agents now report every rent payment online. An agent who does so no longer files the landlord’s return, and the landlord is responsible for filing their own.

Some landlords and tenants still run the old way. Rent is paid in full to a bank account abroad, a tenant deducts 20% but never reports it, or a return goes unfiled. Each of those leaves a credit unclaimed, a filing missed or a tenant exposed.

• Emigrants who kept the family home or a rental property in Ireland.
• Overseas investors who own Irish apartments, commercial units or farmland.
• Heirs and joint owners living abroad who inherited Irish property.
• Companies and partnerships based outside Ireland that let Irish property.
• Landlords with housing support tenants, where a local authority pays part of the rent.
• Landlords whose rent is collected by an estate agent and who want the notifications and the return handled.
• Landlords who have not filed an Irish return since 2023 and want to get up to date.

• Registration: We register you for Irish income tax or corporation tax. This is included in the set-up.
• Property IDs: We find or create the property IDs: LPT IDs for homes, Commercial Premises or Land IDs for everything else.
• Set-up with your agent: We set up NLWT with your estate agent so they know what Revenue needs from them.
• Monthly Rental Notifications: We make them to Revenue on ROS on your estate agent’s instruction.
• Unclaimed notifications: We claim any notification made without your tax reference number.
• Your annual return: We file your Form 11, or CT1 for a company, with your expenses and every NLWT credit claimed, and adjust your preliminary tax.
• Earlier years: We file any returns you have missed since 2023, at a fixed fee per year.
• Revenue queries: We deal with Revenue when something does not match.
• If you sell: We manage the capital gains tax, including the CG1 return and CG50 clearance, for a fixed fee.
• Irish tax only: Your home country taxes your worldwide income and normally gives credit for the Irish tax paid, so your home-country adviser deals with that return.

When a non-resident landlord sells Irish property, capital gains tax and Revenue clearance come with the sale. We file the CG1 return, obtain CG50 clearance from Revenue, and deal with Revenue and your solicitor from start to finish. It is a fixed fee of €1,000 + VAT.

Call us before contracts are signed, so the clearance is ready when the sale closes.

1. Book a 20-minute call. Tell us where you live, how many properties you have and who collects the rent today.
2. We register and set up. We register you for Irish tax, gather the property IDs and tell your tenant or agent exactly what they need.
3. We keep watch. Each month we make the Rental Notification on your estate agent’s instruction and check it against the rent you receive, so a gap is caught while it is easy to fix.
4. We file your return. Your Form 11 or CT1 is filed with expenses and credits claimed, and any refund is chased.

The initial call, your tax registration and the set-up are included at no extra charge. After that, each service has a fixed fee, quoted in writing before we start. Prices exclude VAT.

Together, the annual return and the monthly notifications usually come to about €550 + VAT a year.

• Chartered Accountants Ireland firm. We are based in Galway, have been since 1990 and work with clients abroad by phone, email and video.
• Personal tax and company law in house. Mary Hoare FCA specialises in personal tax, restructuring and company law.
• Property experience. Henry O’Toole ACCA looks after client portfolios across construction, agriculture and real estate.
• A partner, not a call centre. Eddie Hoare FCA and the team deal with you directly.
• One firm for the rest. Accounts, capital taxes and succession planning when you need them.

• Taxation: income tax returns, Form 11 and Revenue audits.
• Succession and Capital Taxes: capital gains tax on a sale, and inheritance planning for a property.
• Accountancy: rental accounts for companies and partnerships.

Every rule below comes from Revenue’s guidance, linked at the end of this guide. Last reviewed 12 November 2026.

What is Non-Resident Landlord Withholding Tax?

Non-Resident Landlord Withholding Tax (NLWT) is tax of 20% taken from rent at source when the landlord lives outside Ireland. It applies to rent from residential, commercial and agricultural property. The person paying the rent withholds 20% of the gross rent, pays it to Revenue and reports it online. The landlord then claims that 20% as a credit on their own Irish tax return. The online system has run since 1 July 2023.

Which form do you use? Rental Notifications, and what happened to Form R185

Revenue’s current NLWT guidance does not use a numbered paper form. Tenants and collection agents report each rent payment online by making a Rental Notification (RN) in myAccount or the Revenue Online Service (ROS). Before 1 July 2023 the paper Form R185 was used. Revenue says R185 is now obsolete and should not be submitted for rent paid after 30 June 2023.

Who has to withhold?

The answer depends on who the tenant pays.

The rate, and how it works in euro

The rate is the standard rate of income tax, currently 20%, applied to the gross rent excluding VAT. If the standard rate changes, the withholding rate follows it.

Example: rent is €1,500 a month. The tenant deducts €300 and pays the landlord €1,200. The Rental Notification records a gross payment of €1,500 and a deduction of €300. Over a year, that is €3,600 withheld on €18,000 of rent.

The 20% is a credit against the landlord’s Irish tax, not automatically the final bill. Expenses incurred in earning the rent can reduce the liability, so the return may produce a refund or a balance due. There are no interim refunds: the credit is only released when the annual return is filed, and any excess is refunded after that.

What tenants must do

• Check where the landlord lives. If the rent goes straight to a landlord whose usual place of abode is outside Ireland, you must deduct 20%. If you only find out later, deduct from every payment from then on, unless and until the landlord appoints an Irish collection agent.
• Get the landlord’s details. You need their name and address, the property’s Local Property Tax (LPT) ID, and their email address and phone number. If you do not have the landlord’s tax reference number (TRN), you must enter the email address and phone number, and the landlord can claim the notification later using the property ID.
• Pay 80% to the landlord. Withhold the other 20% of the gross rent.
• Make a Rental Notification. Sign in to myAccount or ROS and open the NLWT service. Choose Tenant/Other, enter the landlord, property and payment details, and make the notification after you have paid the rent.
• Pay the 20% to Revenue. For monthly rent you can set up repeat notifications. Revenue’s example is a first notification plus 11 repeats, which covers a year of rent. The first debit date must be more than 7 days ahead.
• Keep the acknowledgement. The system produces a PDF of each notification, which you can give the landlord as proof.

When? The law says the payment must be made forthwith. Revenue’s reading is that an individual tenant should notify no more than 7 days after paying the rent and making the deduction.

Housing support payments such as HAP and RAS count as rent. The local authority deducts 20% from its payment and files its own notification. Any top-up is handled separately by the tenant or collection agent who pays it.

What collection agents must do

A collection agent must live in Ireland. It can be a letting agent, an accountant, a relative or any person or business the landlord chooses. An agent has two options.

Option 1: operate NLWT. The agent receives the rent, withholds 20%, and makes a Rental Notification for each payment with the landlord’s TRN and tax type: Income Tax for individuals, Corporation Tax for companies. Revenue expects each notification, with its 20% payment, on or before the first day of the month after the rent was collected. Agents managing several properties can upload notifications in bulk by CSV file through ROS. An agent who does this is not chargeable for the landlord’s rental income and does not file the landlord’s return.

Option 2: stay chargeable. The agent does not withhold or notify. Instead the agent registers with Revenue, files tax returns and self-assesses in their own right, and is personally liable for the tax plus any surcharges, interest or penalties.

An agent who should be operating NLWT but does not notify or remit the 20% becomes chargeable and assessable for the landlord’s income under section 1034. A tax agent and a collection agent are separate roles, even when one firm holds both.

What non-resident landlords must do

• Register for Irish tax. You need a tax reference number before notifications can be claimed against you. Individuals register for income tax and companies for corporation tax. We do this as part of the set-up.
• Give your tenant or agent what they need. Your name and address, your TRN and tax type, the property’s LPT ID, and your email address and phone number.
• Create an ID if there is no LPT ID. Commercial property, agricultural land and long leases where the tenant pays the LPT have no LPT ID. You generate a Commercial Premises or Land ID yourself in the NLWT system and give it to the tenant or agent. They cannot create it for you. For land you will need the folio number.
• Check the notifications. Search the NLWT system for notifications made against your properties. Claim any made without your TRN, using the LPT or Commercial ID.
• File your own return every year. That is Form 11 for individuals or CT1 for companies, covering all your income and not just the rent. The tax withheld is pre-populated on the Irish rental income panel. For Form 11 the deadline is 31 October, with the extended ROS date in November. A company’s CT1 follows the normal corporation tax deadline.
• Adjust preliminary tax. Treat NLWT withheld as a payment on account and deduct it from your preliminary tax.
• Keep your bank details current in ROS or myAccount so any refund can be paid.

Where it goes wrong

• Missing or wrong LPT ID. The notification fails validation.
• TRN and tax type do not match. A company needs Corporation Tax, an individual needs Income Tax.
• The tenant deducts but never notifies. If no notification is made, Revenue cannot pursue the NLWT. The landlord gets no credit for it and still owes income tax on the rent.
• A notification is made with no money in the account. The person who made it is liable for the amount.
• A notification is wrong. It cannot simply be deleted. Amend the gross payment to zero and the payment is refunded.
• A property changes hands. Only the landlord recorded as designated owner at the payment date, not the submission date, can claim a notification, and Revenue’s records can lag the sale.
• Joint owners. Each non-resident owner should be registered with their own TRN, so that notifications can be claimed against the right person.
• PAYE tenants. Some tenants used to cover the withholding by reducing their own tax credits. Revenue says that method is no longer permitted, and those tenants should contact Revenue and use the NLWT system instead.

Selling an Irish property from abroad

Capital gains tax applies to a gain on Irish land or buildings even when the seller lives abroad. Two things come with a sale.

• Revenue clearance. Where the price is over €500,000, or over €1 million for a house or apartment, the buyer must withhold 15% of the whole price and pay it to Revenue unless the seller provides a CG50A clearance certificate. Solicitors do not normally release the proceeds to a non-resident seller until clearance is in place.
• The CG1 return. The gain is reported on a capital gains tax return, Form CG1, with a computation of the gain.

Clearance can take several weeks, so start before contracts are signed.

How Hoare helps

We register you for Irish tax, collect the property IDs, set up NLWT with your estate agent, make the monthly Rental Notifications on the agent’s instruction and file your income tax return with every credit claimed. We do not collect your rent. If you sell, we manage the capital gains tax. See the fees above for what is included.

Sources

Revenue’s own pages are the authority on every rule above. Opened for this guide:

• Revenue: NLWT for tenants
• Revenue: NLWT for collection agents
• Revenue: NLWT for non-resident landlords
• Revenue Tax and Duty Manual, Part 45-01-04A (PDF)

Renting out property in Ireland from abroad? Work through this list once, then each month and each year. If you cannot tick every box, that is what a call with us is for.

Before the first rent payment

• ☐Confirm that your usual place of abode is outside Ireland, so the withholding rule applies.
• ☐Register for Irish tax and get your tax reference number: income tax if you are an individual, corporation tax if you are a company.
• ☐Find the Local Property Tax (LPT) ID for each residential property. For commercial property, agricultural land or a long lease, create a Commercial Premises or Land ID in the NLWT system.
• ☐Decide who withholds: your tenant, an Irish collection agent who operates NLWT, or a chargeable collection agent.
• ☐Give your tenant or agent your name and address, your TRN and tax type, the property ID, and your email address and phone number.
• ☐If you already have a collection agent, ask which option they have chosen since 1 July 2023.

Every month

• ☐Check that you received 80% of the rent and that 20% was withheld.
• ☐Check that a Rental Notification was made for each payment. A tenant should notify no more than 7 days after paying. An agent should notify by the first day of the following month.
• ☐Save the PDF acknowledgement of each notification.
• ☐Claim any notification made without your TRN, using the property ID.

Every year

• ☐Total the year’s notifications and compare them with the rent you received.
• ☐Gather your expenses for the property.
• ☐File Form 11 (individual) or CT1 (company) with all your Irish income. Form 11 is due by 31 October, with the extended ROS date in November.
• ☐Check that the NLWT credit has pre-populated on the Irish rental income panel.
• ☐Reduce your preliminary tax by the NLWT already paid.
• ☐Keep your bank details current in ROS or myAccount so a refund can be paid.

When something changes

• ☐New tenant: send them your details and make sure they know to make Rental Notifications.
• ☐Sale: talk to us before contracts are signed, because capital gains tax needs a CG1 return and Revenue clearance (CG50).
• ☐Inheritance or a new co-owner: each non-resident owner needs their own TRN, and only the recorded owner at the payment date can claim a notification.
• ☐Change of residence: talk to us before the next rent payment.

The basics

Tenants and agents

Landlords

Fees, selling and home-country tax

This page is a general guide, not tax advice. Revenue’s rules change, and we review this page after each Budget. Last reviewed 12 November 2026. Prices exclude VAT.