Q. Will anyone buy my old furniture or shall I give it to charity?
Q I have recently bought some new furniture for my house. I have some old furniture that could be given to charity, if they would like it, and some that is nearly new that I’d like to try and sell. What are the best ways to do this?
AThe market for old furniture is very poor and you're going to have to be realistic about what your old furniture might fetch. When you weigh it up, it simply might not be worth it to go through the whole palaver (and, maybe, the expense of advertising) your stuff, deal with the phone calls and have people traipsing through your home for a look.
The “Articles for Sale” column in the small ads of The Irish Times regularly features furniture, but because of the expense, only bother with the more high value items. There are a couple of websites you could try to advertise your furniture on, eg, gumtree.ie and buyandsell.ie – in both cases, for best results, you will need to upload a digital photo of your individual items.
Browse these sites to see what similar items are going for to get an idea what you should charge and be aware that the whole process could take some time.
A quicker way to get rid of your unwanted furniture is to simply give it away, to a charity or just someone who’d fancy it.
Not all charities take furniture, their shops simply aren’t big enough and they are justifiably worried about being the dumping ground for smelly old furniture that no one wants, so contact the charity shops in your area to see if they can take your furniture.
Oxfam Home on Dublin Road, Belfast and Francis Street, Dublin 8, specialises in furniture so contact them at 01-402 0555 to see if are they interested.
You can see the type of things they sell on www.oxfamireland.org or you could post the stuff on free giveaway sites – with digital pictures – such as dublinwaste.ie and jumbletown.ie
Can we get tax relief for letting out a room to our child?
Q Our adult child has moved home and we have agreed that he will pay rent – not the token amount that he paid years ago when he was just starting out but a proper room rent, similar to what he was paying when he was in private rented accommodation.
He tells us he will be claiming rent relief in his tax returns. Can we avail of the Rent a Room scheme as his rent will come to well below the €10,000 threshold?
A No. According to Revenue, since 2007 where the Rent Tax Credit is claimed by a child paying rent to their parents, the parents will not be allowed to claim the Rent a Room exemption. You will also have to declare this income in your own annual tax return and pay any income tax arising.
Your questions:
Send your queries to Property questions, The Irish Times, The Irish Times Building, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2 or email propertyquestions@irish-times.ie. This column is a readers’ service and is not intended to replace professional advice.
