Your Help to Buy refund of income tax and DIRT.
Estimated HTB refund
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10% of price
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Binding cap
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Your breakdown
Updates live as you type| Candidate limit | Amount |
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Cash back from tax you have already paid
Help to Buy is not free money from the State, it is a refund of your own tax. The scheme looks back over your last four years of income tax and DIRT, and returns a chunk of it to put toward the deposit on a new home. Because it is a refund of tax paid, the amount you can claim is capped by how much tax you actually handed over. A graduate two years into their first job has paid far less tax than a couple in their late thirties, and the refund reflects that. This calculator finds the figure by comparing three separate limits and handing you the lowest.
The lowest of three numbers
Your Help to Buy refund is whichever is smallest of three things. The first is a hard ceiling of 30,000 euro. The second is 10 percent of the purchase price. The third is the total income tax and DIRT you paid over the previous four tax years. The scheme will not give you more than any one of these allows, so the binding limit is simply the tightest of the three. Knowing which one bites tells you whether saving the rest of your deposit, or simply waiting to build up more tax paid, would change the outcome.
A €350,000 new home with €28,000 of tax behind you
Imagine a couple buying a newly built home for 350,000 euro, who between them have paid 28,000 euro of income tax and DIRT over the last four years. Ten percent of the price is 35,000 euro, comfortably under the 30,000 euro cap once you note the tax figure. The three candidates are 30,000 euro, 35,000 euro, and 28,000 euro. The lowest is the 28,000 euro of tax actually paid, so that is the refund.
The chart lines up the three limits so you can see the binding one at a glance. The shortest bar, the tax actually paid, is what you receive.
The rules that disqualify a claim
Help to Buy is narrower than people hope, and three conditions trip claimants up most often. The home must be newly built or self-built; a second-hand house never qualifies, no matter how much tax you have paid. The price must not exceed 500,000 euro, and a single euro over that ceiling wipes out the entire refund rather than just tapering it. And every buyer must be a genuine first-time buyer who takes out a mortgage of at least 70 percent of the price, which rules out cash buyers and those with very large deposits. A practical tip: because the refund is limited by tax paid, a couple where both have been working and paying PAYE for four years will usually claim far more than a single buyer, so it is worth checking both partners' records before assuming a low figure.
Can I use Help to Buy on a self-build?
Yes. A self-build qualifies as a new home, and the refund is calculated against the approved valuation of the completed property rather than a purchase price. The same 500,000 euro ceiling and the same four-year tax look-back apply, and the refund is paid toward the cost once the mortgage is drawn down in stages.
Does the refund affect my Central Bank deposit requirement?
It helps you meet it. The Help to Buy refund can count as part of your minimum 10 percent deposit on a new home, so a buyer short on savings can still reach the deposit a lender requires. It does not change the loan-to-value or loan-to-income limits themselves, it simply provides cash that counts toward the deposit side of those rules.