Claiming Tax Back if now unemployed!

CluelessGirl

I honestly have no idea if this can be done but a person mentioned it so it maybe BS!

Basically I am completing my work contract of 8 months tomorrow and I have no work lined up (not from lack of trying!).

So my question is can I can claim back the Tax I have paid while in employment?

Or do I have to sign on to get it?

Or can you claim it back and sign on?

Would prefer not to sign on as the whole process frightens the bejaysus out of me!!!!!!

Thanks in advance.

bartooseboy

hi clueless girl,

I was in a similar position to yours. I was made redundant last november and was unsure of where i stood with claiming back whatever tax was due to me.

In my instance i signed on immediately (this is important as there can be a long lead-in time before you get your first allowance). And only last week i applied to taxback.com to see if i was entitled to claim any tax back from last year. They seemed to think that i definitely would be. I am still waiting on them to get back to me with a figure though. I'll keep you informed!

Mimojo

Hullo!
I too went through a similar thing getting made redundant, and seriously there is no shame in having to sign on. Hopefully you will have enough stamps built up to get jobseekers benefit (from your stamps). Otherwise it will be jobseekers allowance. The other poster is right, there can be very long lead times for your claim to be proceeded so as soon as you finish up go straight to your local SW office and sign on. I was waiting weeks and weeks for my claim to be processed so the sooner you get your application in the better.
In terms of tax back, I claimed by tax back for last year. I only worked part of the year in a s**ty job so my earnings were not that high, so I was entitled to claim back the tax I paid, got a couple of hundred euro so that was handy! As far as I know you can only claim tax back now for the 2010 tax year. The tax you have paid from Jan to now you will have to wait until early 2012 to claim it back. That is my understanding of it. But if you were on an 8 month contract and did not work for the first part of 2010, you should be able to claim tax paid back. I used taxback.com a couple of years ago to claim tax I paid in the UK, but this time all I did was send in my P60 to the Revenue and they lodged the payment to my bank account within 2 weeks. I suggest calling the revenue to enquire in the first instance. Best of luck with your job hunt too!

pow wow

Apply directly to Revenue using Form P50 along with your P45. There is no need to go through a third party agency like taxback.com

Mongarra

You will have 3 months worked in the current tax year so you will still have 9 months tax credits left. While signing on or not is a matter for yourself, it will affect your tax liability if you are paid Jobseekers Benefit. Apart from the first €13 per week this benefit is taxable so it will affect the amount of tax credit available for the rest of the year. Jobseekers Assistance is not taxable.

The way it usually works is that you bring your P45 cessation certificate (you should receive this from your employer and it will show how much you earned from start of year to 31/3 and tax paid) to the tax office and they will repay you some of the tax paid each month (starting after end of April) taking into account any income , such as Jobseekers Benefit, that is taxable. They will then issue a revised P45 showing the reduced tax figure available for refund. You then bring this to them after end of May and so on until all the tax has been repaid. If you are lucky enough to obtain work in the meantime you bring the latest P45 to your new employer instead of to the tax office.

lil-ms-vodka

If your in Dublin drop into the tax office in o'Connell St or call your local office. I finished work last month and found them very helpful on overpaid tax last year had my refund within 10 days. Also you need to sigh on as there is very little work out there so your only loosing out

Mrs OBumble

CluelessGirl wrote: »

So my question is can I can claim back the Tax I have paid while in employment?

Or do I have to sign on to get it?

...

Would prefer not to sign on as the whole process frightens the bejaysus out of me!!!!!!

Claiming the tax back and signing on are two totally different issues, not at all related.

As someone said, approach your local Revenue office to find out about the tax-back issue. (And don't go near places like taxback.com - totally unnecessary.)

It worries me that signing-on frightens you, though. It's really not difficult at all - and quite a lot easier than the process of looking for work.

If you have enough money to get by on for a while, that's great. However if you don't sign-on, then you don't get any PRSI-credits (AKA stamps) while you're not working. Imagine what could happen if you use your savings up and then get a job now - but get sick next year. Worst case, you might not qualify for illness benefit next year because you don't have enough stamps in the "relevant tax period".

CluelessGirl

A massive thank you to all of you for your responses.

That info puts my mind at ease.

What documents do I need to bring to the Welfare with me in order to sign on?

Have a great weekend and many thanks again.

lil-ms-vodka

Clueless Girl
U'll need passport or full licence. Utility bill or bank statement for proof of address. Also u need comfirmation that employment is terminated so, P45/redundancy form/company letter
Go to welfare.ie and u can download application form & check everything u need

Good luck

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/unemployed.aspx