Tax relief on my wifes tuition fee

macgabhs

I recently got married and have a question on tax relief. My wife is a full time student and we are to be jointly assessed for income tax. My question is can I claim the tax relief from the tuition fees my wife pays from her student loan? Her fees are due to be paid soon so I'm trying to figure the best way to pay them so that we do not lose the tax relief. Any help is appreciated.

Losphel

macgabhs wrote: »

I recently got married and have a question on tax relief. My wife is a full time student and we are to be jointly assessed for income tax. My question is can I claim the tax relief from the tuition fees my wife pays from her student loan? Her fees are due to be paid soon so I'm trying to figure the best way to pay them so that we do not lose the tax relief. Any help is appreciated.

If I understand you correctly, your question is if you can claim tax relief on your spouse's tuition fees. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Assuming that the course she is doing qualifies for tax relief, yes you can use those tax credits to offset the amount of tax you would pay. If you notice on the IT31 Form (that's the Tuition Fees form) it has "Name of Claimant" and "Name of Student" on them.

Assuming she does qualify, you should probably check where your tax credits and rate band are allocated and adjust them accordingly (I believe you can do it online.) If you're not sure, either ring Revenue or call into them and they'll help you out.

macgabhs

Thanks I'll give revenue a call about it. My understanding of the "Name of Claimant" & "Name of Student" is that it is possible for any taxpayer to claim relief on tuition fees which they paid for another person e.g. Me paying my fiancé's fee last year. However, my question now is can I use the additional tax credit my that my wife would normally get if she was working were she to pay the fees herself? I have a feeling that the answer is yes but I want to double check in case we lose out on €1000 tax back next year! Thanks for your help

Losphel

macgabhs wrote: »

Thanks I'll give revenue a call about it. My understanding of the "Name of Claimant" & "Name of Student" is that it is possible for any taxpayer to claim relief on tuition fees which they paid for another person e.g. Me paying my fiancé's fee last year. However, my question now is can I use the additional tax credit my that my wife would normally get if she was working were she to pay the fees herself? I have a feeling that the answer is yes but I want to double check in case we lose out on €1000 tax back next year! Thanks for your help

Basically, since you're jointly assessed, tax credits and the rate band can be moved between both of you. So essentially, you can move all the credits that she has to you. She won't have PAYE Credits though, since she isn't employed, just Personal Credits. Still, I really do suggest ringing Revenue to sort out the allocation of the credits and rate band. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to do.

macgabhs

I was in touch with them today and got the same answer as you gave above. Thanks for the advice.