Budget 2027: the changes that affect households
Last updated: 13 October 2026
A household summary of the published Budget 2027 tax measures, including pay, rent, housing, CGT and the rates that were not changed.
Pay and the minimum wage
The personal income tax package is the largest household measure. From 1 January 2027 the standard-rate cut-off rises by €2,500, to €46,500 for a single person and €55,500 for a married couple or civil partners with one income. Two incomes can add up to €37,500 more. The personal, employee and earned-income credits each rise by €125, from €2,000 to €2,125. The Home Carer Credit rises by €100, to €2,050. The 2% USC ceiling rises by €1,600, from €28,700 to €30,300. The worked comparison at €30,000, €50,000 and €80,000 is in the guide to what Budget 2027 does to pay.
The national minimum wage goes from €14.15 to €14.94 an hour. The tax policy changes use that increase to explain the USC ceiling: a full-time adult on the new wage should stay out of the higher USC rates. Their own example is Timmy, on 39 hours a week. That is 2,028 hours. At €14.15 it is €28,697. At €14.94 it is €30,299, and the document puts his annual gain in net income at €1,386 once the wage rise, tax, USC and PRSI are all counted. The employer PRSI threshold rises from €552 to €600 a week, which is a cost for the employer rather than a line on the employee’s payslip.
Employee PRSI is a different story from the income-tax package. Note 2 under the Department’s pay tables says the agreed increases are 4.35% from 1 October 2026 and 4.5% from 1 October 2027. The take-home calculator can apply either 2027 rate to a full year of equal weeks. It does not silently blend nine months and three months. Class S, the self-employed minimum contribution and employer PRSI are unchanged on this site.
Rent and a first home
The rent tax credit rises by €150 to €1,150 for a single claimant, and by €300 to €2,300 for a jointly assessed couple. The tax policy changes say the higher amounts apply to the 2027 and 2028 tax years. The credit is still income tax only, and it is still limited by the tax you actually owe. It is not built into the take-home calculator. The rent tax credit guide sets out the 2026 claim, including the €1,000 and €2,000 caps that apply before these new amounts.
Help to Buy’s maximum refund rises by €5,000, from €30,000 to €35,000, for a claim from 7 October 2026. The other limits stay: 10% of the purchase price or valuation, and the income tax and DIRT paid in the four years before the application. The Help to Buy guide works those caps through. Residential stamp duty is not given a new rate in the tax policy changes. The stamp duty calculator still uses 1% to €1 million, 2% on the next €500,000 and 6% above €1.5 million.
Rent-a-room relief rises from €14,000 to €16,000 from 1 January 2027. It is also extended to certain designated auxiliary dwellings installed after 27 July 2026, within one €16,000 ceiling for the taxpayer. A new derelict property tax is to be introduced in the Finance Bill at 7%, with preliminary registers due on 1 September 2027. That is a charge on derelict property, not a credit for a household budget.
Savings, funds and capital gains
The standard rate of capital gains tax falls from 33% to 31% for a disposal on or after 7 October 2026. Development land stays at 33%. The capital gains calculator already uses 31% from that date, and 33% before it. The annual exemption was not given a new figure in this Budget.
Investment undertaking tax and life assurance exit tax fall from 38% to 35%. The Minister’s statement dates that reduction from 1 January 2027. The same reduction covers equivalent offshore funds, including ETFs taxed under that regime, and certain foreign life policies. The calculator’s exit-tax mode still uses 38%, because that is the rate for 2026, and the page says the 35% rate is the published 2027 figure. A personal portfolio investment undertaking was not given a new rate. A new Investment Account is due to open on 1 July 2027, with a tax-free threshold of €50,000, a 1% charge on the value above that, and a contribution limit of €12,000 a year. The Minister said it will be legislated for in the Finance Bill, and that investments inside it would sit outside CGT, dividend withholding tax, investment undertaking tax and life assurance exit tax.
The income tax exemption for household micro-generation rises by €200, from €400 to €600. Capital acquisitions tax thresholds rise as well: Group A from €400,000 to €420,000, Group B from €40,000 to €44,000, and Group C from €20,000 to €22,000. The standard CAT rate is not described as changing.
What was not given a new household rate
The VAT calculator’s 23%, 13.5% and 9% rates are unchanged by the published measures. The VAT changes that were announced are narrower: non-oral respiratory vaccines for livestock move to 9%, and the farmer’s flat-rate addition for 2027 is 4.8%. A pack of 20 cigarettes rises by €1, including VAT, which is an excise change rather than a new VAT rate. Deposit Interest Retention Tax is not mentioned, so the 33% rate on the sources page stays the figure this site uses.
A one-parent or widowed parent who qualifies for the Single Person Child Carer Credit has a standard-rate cut-off of €50,500 in 2027, up from €48,000. The income-tax calculator does not offer that status. It also does not apply the rent tax credit or the Home Carer Credit. Pension contribution limits and the €115,000 earnings cap were not retuned in the personal tax chapter. The age-related valuation factors for the standard fund threshold are to change on 1 January 2027, with the detail left to the Finance Bill, so no new factor is stored here.
Every 2027 number on the calculators is a Budget figure, not a Finance Act figure. If the Bill prints a different married credit, a different USC ceiling, or a different employee PRSI rate, the dataset should follow the Act. Until then the pages say the measures are pending.