What should I do

from_atozinc · 22-03-2016 12:07pm #1

First of all, apologies, I am just useless when it comes to tax.

High level, here is my scenario

I work and earn about 65k. (for a multi national)
I have 2 kids under 3 years.
My wife just recently gave up her job to mind the kids (well that and a combination of us moving out of Dublin)

So wife is currently not in work and wont be for a while. the scenario we have (like many others) is that if we put kids to creche and she gets another job, it is just not worth the hassle etc plus we spent half our time taking days off with the kids when in creche due to them getting sick

At the moment from a tax point of view, we are separately assessed.

Should I request we be jointly assessed so that I can get some of my wife's tax credits ? Or is this the correct thing to do here ?

I dont want to f3ck things up by requesting this and then find out it messes up other things, any comments welcome.

gerrybbadd · 22-03-2016 12:46pm

Youd be best being Jointly assessed, if it look like she's not getting back to work any time soon.

You can take on 1650 of her personal tax credit, and an additional 9000 in Standard rate cut off point, meaning you can earn this amount extra at 20% rather than 40% (in money terms, that's 1800 euro)

Just so you know, you will need to elect for joint assessment before the 31st March.

from_atozinc · 22-03-2016 12:48pm

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Youd be best being Jointly assessed, if it look like she's not getting back to work any time soon.

You can take on 1650 of her personal tax credit, and an additional 9000 in Standard rate cut off point, meaning you can earn this amount extra at 20% rather than 40% (in money terms, that's 1800 euro)

Just so you know, you will need to elect for joint assessment before the 31st March.

Thank you very much. Who do I contact about doing this , do you know>?

gerrybbadd · 22-03-2016 12:55pm

from_atozinc wrote: »

Thank you very much. Who do I contact about doing this , do you know>?

Pop your PPS number into this, and it'll give you the relevant contact details:

https://www.ros.ie/wiclo/index?lang=en

from_atozinc · 22-03-2016 1:00pm

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Pop your PPS number into this, and it'll give you the relevant contact details:

https://www.ros.ie/wiclo/index?lang=en

Thank you again.

Whats the chances of getting the change done to being jointly assessed before the 31st March?

is it a pain of a process or easy enough?

from_atozinc · 22-03-2016 2:08pm

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Youd be best being Jointly assessed, if it look like she's not getting back to work any time soon.

You can take on 1650 of her personal tax credit, and an additional 9000 in Standard rate cut off point, meaning you can earn this amount extra at 20% rather than 40% (in money terms, that's 1800 euro)

Just so you know, you will need to elect for joint assessment before the 31st March.

so does that mean, I would be 1650 + 1800 better off a year ?

from_atozinc · 22-03-2016 8:03pm

Any more comments on this ?

Lockedout2 · 22-03-2016 8:23pm

â‚¬1,650 + 1,800 plus the home carers credit

.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/home-carers.html

from_atozinc · 22-03-2016 8:51pm

Lockedout2 wrote: »

â‚¬1,650 + 1,800 plus the home carers credit

.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/home-carers.html

Thank you. Didn't even know about home caters tax credit. I see it states the below in the link.

What is the department of social protection ? Is this like someone getting the dole or job seekers allowance ?

" Carers Allowance from the Department of Social Protection is not taken into account for determining restriction, but is a taxable source of income. "

relax carry on · 22-03-2016 9:21pm

from_atozinc wrote: »

Thank you. Didn't even know about home caters tax credit. I see it states the below in the link.

What is the department of social protection ? Is this like someone getting the dole or job seekers allowance ?

" Carers Allowance from the Department of Social Protection is not taken into account for determining restriction, but is a taxable source of income. "

The DSP is the name for the Social Welfare department. It's been called that for a few years now.

Jobseekers benefit which is based on your prsi contributions is a taxable source of income. Means tested jobseekers allowance is not taxable.

from_atozinc · 22-03-2016 9:53pm

Is it important that I get this in before the 31st March ? Or does it really matter ?

gerrybbadd · 23-03-2016 2:08pm

from_atozinc wrote: »

Is it important that I get this in before the 31st March ? Or does it really matter ?

Yes. It's important. It does matter. The deadline date hasn't been just created for the craic. If you don't get it in before then, you will have to remain separately assessed for the remainder of the year. Its as simple as that really.

If you send it in to the office in writing, as long as its posted on or before 31st March, then it'll be a timely election. Any time after this, you're out of luck

from_atozinc · 23-03-2016 4:44pm

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Yes. It's important. It does matter. The deadline date hasn't been just created for the craic. If you don't get it in before then, you will have to remain separately assessed for the remainder of the year. Its as simple as that really.

If you send it in to the office in writing, as long as its posted on or before 31st March, then it'll be a timely election. Any time after this, you're out of luck

Thank you, so they just need to receive the letter before 31st March.

what do you mean by "timely election" ?

gerrybbadd · 23-03-2016 6:17pm

from_atozinc wrote: »

Thank you, so they just need to receive the letter before 31st March.

what do you mean by "timely election" ?

Timely election - before 31st of March.

Untimely election, after 31st of March.

You need to send it before 31st of March. If it's received a few days after this, it won't matter, because you originally sent the request prior to the 31st.

scheister · 24-03-2016 9:44am

from_atozinc wrote: »

First of all, apologies, I am just useless when it comes to tax.

High level, here is my scenario

I work and earn about 65k. (for a multi national)
I have 2 kids under 3 years.
My wife just recently gave up her job to mind the kids (well that and a combination of us moving out of Dublin)

So wife is currently not in work and wont be for a while. the scenario we have (like many others) is that if we put kids to creche and she gets another job, it is just not worth the hassle etc plus we spent half our time taking days off with the kids when in creche due to them getting sick

At the moment from a tax point of view, we are separately assessed.

Should I request we be jointly assessed so that I can get some of my wife's tax credits ? Or is this the correct thing to do here ?

I dont want to f3ck things up by requesting this and then find out it messes up other things, any comments welcome.

Hi, the March 31st deadline does not always apply, its only in certain circumstances. Since you got married have you changed your tax status or are you taxed same as before you got married. The reason i ask is once your married joint assessment is the default position, but Revenue may not know you got married.

from_atozinc · 24-03-2016 10:39am

scheister wrote: »

Hi, the March 31st deadline does not always apply, its only in certain circumstances. Since you got married have you changed your tax status or are you taxed same as before you got married. The reason i ask is once your married joint assessment is the default position, but Revenue may not know you got married.

Since we got married, we have not changed any of our tax circumstances.

How would they know we got married? do they get flagged somehow ? or is it you just have to tell them

TheChizler · 24-03-2016 10:44am

Out of curiosity, if the deadline was missed, could you fill out a tax return at the end or the year and claim back the difference?

gerrybbadd · 24-03-2016 12:18pm

Ok, in your original post you stated you are separately assessed, which would have had to be elected for.

If you never contacted Revenue about your marriage to begin with, you are not separately assessed really, you will be single on their records. So the 31st of March deadline won't really apply. In the absence of an election, if Revenue were to know about the marriage, they would apply Joint Assessment automatically.

from_atozinc · 24-03-2016 12:39pm

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Ok, in your original post you stated you are separately assessed, which would have had to be elected for.

If you never contacted Revenue about your marriage to begin with, you are not separately assessed really, you will be single on their records. So the 31st of March deadline won't really apply. In the absence of an election, if Revenue were to know about the marriage, they would apply Joint Assessment automatically.

im not sure on the phrasing, but essentially, I never contacted the tax office to say I was married, so therefore I am assuming I am still in the same state as I was before I got married, assessed on my own and separate to my wife and my wife is assessed on her own and separate to me i.e separate assessed

Edit : ok, I read yourt post properly again

so there seems to be 3 states,

1) SINGLE
2) Separately assessed
3) Jointly assessed

So I think we will go from being SINGLE assessed to Jointly assessed.

Will I still benefit from the 1800 + 1650 ?

SRASE · 24-03-2016 1:07pm

As you made no election you are jointly assessed from the year following year you got married. This is the default position. You need to contact Revenue to confirm date of marriage so they can update their records.

scheister · 24-03-2016 1:52pm

Best thing to do from here is contact Revenue and inform them that you got married and when. Your records will then be changed to reflect this. This may lead to a refund depending on the wages you were both earning over the marriage period as you can alter the records going back 4 years. So from 2012-2016

Going forward with only one income in the house if you are jointly assessed you will get a rate band of €42,800 and you will be entitled to credit of 4,950 rather then at the moment the band is €33,800 and credits of 3,300 for you

Ally Dick · 25-03-2016 9:37am

When I got married, I told the revenue about two years later. Then I noticed a sizeable one off jump in my wages. The revenue had retrospectively amended my tax free allowances to give me back all the joint assessment income I was entitled to back to the date of our marriage.

barneystinson · 25-03-2016 10:58am

Ally Dick wrote: »

When I got married, I told the revenue about two years later. Then I noticed a sizeable one off jump in my wages. The revenue had retrospectively amended my tax free allowances to give me back all the joint assessment income I was entitled to back to the date of our marriage.

That's not what happened. Under separate assessment you can still benefit from any unused transferable credits / rate band of your spouse - that's what actually happened. And in separate assessment that only happens after the year end on balancing statements.

The OP is asking what the best thing for the current year is, and the only way to get that benefit DURING a tax year is by election for joint assessment.

from_atozinc · 03-05-2016 1:16pm

scheister wrote: »

Best thing to do from here is contact Revenue and inform them that you got married and when. Your records will then be changed to reflect this. This may lead to a refund depending on the wages you were both earning over the marriage period as you can alter the records going back 4 years. So from 2012-2016

Going forward with only one income in the house if you are jointly assessed you will get a rate band of €42,800 and you will be entitled to credit of 4,950 rather then at the moment the band is €33,800 and credits of 3,300 for you

Hi,

I got in contact with revenue at end of March and they have processed the "assessable spouse election form" and sent me an amended tax credit cert for 2016 - see attached.

Does this seem correct?

Stupid question, but how come my wife still has PAYE tax credit, she is not working anymore

Citizenpain · 03-05-2016 1:30pm

tax credits seem fine - the paye credit is not transferable
would need to see the bands to see that they gave you the extra band increase

toadfly · 03-05-2016 1:43pm

What is your cut-off now, 33800 or 42800?

from_atozinc · 03-05-2016 1:49pm

toadfly wrote: »

What is your cut-off now, 33800 or 42800?

It's 42800

toadfly · 03-05-2016 3:17pm

from_atozinc wrote: »

It's 42800

Thats correct, its the max you can get.

from_atozinc · 03-05-2016 3:21pm

In regard to the home carers tax credit, can ones partner claim this if they are getting job seekers allowance? i.e is job seekers allowance seen as income?

from_atozinc · 03-05-2016 4:53pm

from_atozinc wrote: »

Hi,

I got in contact with revenue at end of March and they have processed the "assessable spouse election form" and sent me an amended tax credit cert for 2016 - see attached.

Does this seem correct?

Stupid question, but how come my wife still has PAYE tax credit, she is not working anymore

Any reason why the Rent tax credit is only 80 Euro?
How is the medical insurance relief calculated?

CIARAN_BOYLE · 03-05-2016 5:32pm

from_atozinc wrote: »

Any reason why the Rent tax credit is only 80 Euro?

Thats all the credit is.

from_atozinc wrote: »

How is the medical insurance relief calculated?

20% of policy upto a maximum of €1000 per adult on the policy and €500 per child on the policy.

What should I do

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