“Tax fugatives” is an expression that is used with fervour by exited commentators when arguing about people who take advantage of tax havens. Well, I would like to add another nominee for that definition – landlords who do not declare rental income or pay stamp duty on the purchase of their investment property.

Daft.ie, as anyone who has ever seeked accomodation in Ireland well knows, is one of the main Irish websites for buying, selling and renting property. A huge proportion of properties for rent will have the following text prominently shown: “Rent Allowance Not Accepted“.

In any civilised country, the mere suggestion of denying somebody their rights would be completely illegal. In Ireland, rent allowance is a benefit that can be claimed by all tenants to some extent. If the tenant insists on claiming rent allowance, however, landlords often implicitly threaten to terminate the contract or raise the rent correspondingly, knowing that they may be flagged as a landlord on Revenue Commissioner databases.

For many tenants trying to make ends meet, this injustice of this kind of behaviour is incredible but, as the Revenue Commissioners are too lazy to pursue these people, tenants are forced to tolerate it. It does not seem to be the most difficult task in the world to go online, identify these landlords, and prosecute them for tax evasion. Tenancy protection laws in Ireland are pathetic enough as it is, without having to subsidise landlords as well.