USC for Medical Card Holders

Monife

Brian Lenihan said when he was passing the Finance Bill, that the USC for medical card holders would go from 7% to 4%.

Does anyone know when this change will take effect?

Thanks

tfitzgerald

I have just been told that this only applies to medical card holders over 70 can anyone confirm this please

namenotavailablE

Unless there has been a VERY recent change, the proposal is to allow a capped rate of 4% (instead of 7%) for BOTH medical card holders and persons over 70.

tfitzgerald

namenotavailabl wrote: »

Unless there has been a VERY recent change, the proposal is to allow a capped rate of 4% (instead of 7%) for BOTH medical card holders and persons over 70.

Thanks a million

Monife

namenotavailabl wrote: »

Unless there has been a VERY recent change, the proposal is to allow a capped rate of 4% (instead of 7%) for BOTH medical card holders and persons over 70.

Hi, do you know when this change will reflect in our payslips?

Shinyboots75

Monife wrote: »

Hi, do you know when this change will reflect in our payslips?

hi, just asked my Payroll on this, they are to come back to me, my MC is off for renewal at the min also..so I wanna try and get it sorted...

Mr. Incognito

The price for the support of the two independents for the support of the Finance act was to exempt medical card holders from the USC.

I haven't had a chance to look at it in detail yet- someone might confirm this is in fact the revised position?

Monife

Also talked to my payroll this week.

They said that it (reducing the rate of USC for medical card holders) was discussed during the debates when passing the final bill but no legislation has been put in place for it yet. They said they have to wait for directions from the Dept. of Finance and new tax credit certificates which could take months.

Damn...

Kristopherus

I expect you will get a refund whenever the new rates kick in.

poppers

we got the following email from our payroll dept. Seems its is already in effect.


The Finance Act has now been approved and it has resulted in changes affecting Medical Card Holders and the USC charge. Since January 2011, Medical Card Holders were obliged to pay the same rate of USC as other employees. The Finance Act concession for resulted in a cap of 4% being placed on Medical Card holders so their USC liability will no longer be subject to the higher rate of 7% USC liability.


Employers need to ensure that they have a copy of the current medical card for those employees availing of the 4% cap. A current “GP-only” card is not eligible.


If you forward a copy of the medical card to us, we will then ensure that any overpayments of USC from January to date will be refunded in the next payroll period.

HarvestAnne

Medical card holders should receive a refund from their employers in their next pay packet - assuming they have paid the USC at 7%!

Cyril Squirrel

Are there medical card holders out there who have actually been put on the new 4% rate? Have any of you gotten refunds for any over-payments since the start of the year?
I'm still getting paid the same now as I was at the start of the year....

Monife

Cyril Squirrel wrote: »

Are there medical card holders out there who have actually been put on the new 4% rate? Have any of you gotten refunds for any over-payments since the start of the year?
I'm still getting paid the same now as I was at the start of the year....

Hiya, yeah I think I am on the 4%. My wages only went up 3euro though after the change, pretty sh*te!! and the refund I got was about 15/20euro.

HarvestAnne

Hi there,

There's been quite a few people processed in our organisation for the USC refund and although it may only be small - it certainly is worth getting it.
Your employer is obliged to refund it to you - so ask him if he has not done so.
One other thing - it's also worth taking a look at the Income Levy you paid in 2010. If you paid any income levy and your pay for the year was less than €26,000 then you are entitled to claim the Helath Levy back - although you will have to apply to The PRSI Refund Section in Dublin 2. Particularly worth looking at if you were only working for part of the year for example if you went on Maternity Leave.
The way that Health Levy is calculated is different to PAYE as it is based on the earnings in each period as opposed to the cumulative for the year so take a look at your P60 and see what your earnings were.
Might as well get it back if you have overpaid!

Monife

HarvestAnne wrote: »

Hi there,

There's been quite a few people processed in our organisation for the USC refund and although it may only be small - it certainly is worth getting it.
Your employer is obliged to refund it to you - so ask him if he has not done so.
One other thing - it's also worth taking a look at the Income Levy you paid in 2010. If you paid any income levy and your pay for the year was less than €26,000 then you are entitled to claim the Helath Levy back - although you will have to apply to The PRSI Refund Section in Dublin 2. Particularly worth looking at if you were only working for part of the year for example if you went on Maternity Leave.
The way that Health Levy is calculated is different to PAYE as it is based on the earnings in each period as opposed to the cumulative for the year so take a look at your P60 and see what your earnings were.
Might as well get it back if you have overpaid!

I applied for refund for the income levy and I only got a bit over 20euro And I only earned about 13 and half grand (gross) as I only started work half way through the year.

HarvestAnne

Monife wrote: »

I applied for refund for the income levy and I only got a bit over 20euro And I only earned about 13 and half grand (gross) as I only started work half way through the year.

Well Monife, the thing is you can only be refunded what you paid! That goes for any taxes. If you haven't paid it in the first place, you cannot expect to get a refund. Still - isn't €20 better in your pocket that with the Revenue?

jennypeny

My MC is up in August of this year and is unlikely to be renewed.

Am I entitled to get the reduced rate for the first 7 months of the year ?

I definately do not want to end up having an underpayment of taxes at the end of the year.

Lanshane

Monife wrote: »

I applied for refund for the income levy and I only got a bit over 20euro And I only earned about 13 and half grand (gross) as I only started work half way through the year.

Monife, how did you apply for your refund of the USC overpayment? I have contacted payroll in my place but they are ignoring me! Is there any other way I can get this moving I wonder? It's not a huge amount by any means but I certainly need it.

Monife

Lanshane wrote: »

Monife, how did you apply for your refund of the USC overpayment? I have contacted payroll in my place but they are ignoring me! Is there any other way I can get this moving I wonder? It's not a huge amount by any means but I certainly need it.

I just rang the finance section where I work and told them I have a medical card (which they knew already, but I had to remind them) and sent them another copy of it and they said it would take a few weeks. Then one week my wages increased 3 euro and then a few weeks after that I got 20euro back as USC overpayment.

For the income levy, I googled income levy refund and downloaded the form and filled it in and sent it off to revenue along with a copy of my P21 (or was it P60, not sure, the one your employer gives you at the start of the year) along with a copy of my medical card. And about 6-8 weeks later, I got 20euro refunded to my account.

HarvestAnne

jennypeny wrote: »

My MC is up in August of this year and is unlikely to be renewed.

Am I entitled to get the reduced rate for the first 7 months of the year ?

I definately do not want to end up having an underpayment of taxes at the end of the year.

The USC is calculated out on each salary payment independently of previous/future payments. So it's done each period as you get paid. Therefore you should never have an underpayment. However, if you go over the set limits for the lower rates in a particular pay period, you may pay the higher rate and when your pay for the year in total is calculated it may then become apparent that you are due a refund.
In your case Jennypeny, you don't need to worry about underpayment of USC. It may be a case that you will be entitled to a refund after the end of the year depending on your total earnings for the year.
Hope this helps.