I claimed flat rate expenses in PAYE.ie...And now i owe 700 euro to the tax office!

hallo10

Hi,
You are going to laugh at my ignorance regarding taxes but here is my story... I got my PAYE PIN last week so i signed up and i saw that i was claiming Flat rate expenses (in green). I clicked into it and i saw that in my current job it said unclaimed so i went to edit it and selected my profession: Physiotherapist, provides and laundries her own uniform. I though it was great, 380 euro tax relief. Sure thats why i was paying more tax than my colleage! and i claimed back from 2013-2015

I arrive home today i got the P21 from the tax office, i owe 313 euro for 2013, a similar figure for 2014 and i dont know how much more i will be deducted from this year.

The only thing i can think of is that i had a default flat rate expense and i changed it to a worse one (i started working in 2006, as a physio always). The letter said i can appeal within 30 days. Is it worth it? can they just revert the changes? I cannot even see what employment group i was claiming before :-(

I am very worried about this, its the first time i hear to people and go to claim something back (never claimed money from my masters 4 years ago, same with other expenses and now its too late...). I work for a voluntary organisation and its not like i earn as much as a hse physio would so this money is a big deal. I hope someone can help me, my P21 seems to be written in Chinese. Thanks!

chickenlicken2

Firstly look at where the underpayment is coming from.

Where is the underpayment, tax or USC? Go to the P21 and look at where it shows tax owing v paid and same for USC? Which has the shortfall.

Have you an old tax credit cert for those years?

Then see if you can offset some of the liability by some other credit that you hadn't claimed.
Were you renting in those years, and renting since Dec 2010?
Did you have a medical card?
Any medical expenses to claim
What year did you pay for the masters?

jlm29

Mad above, check and see where the underpayment was. You should be able to figure that out from the p21. But ring or call to the tax office if you need to. Generally they are quite helpful

allthedoyles

The €380 expenses you claimed in an allowance and not a tax credit , so its net value is only about €75 .

One consolation is that the tax office will agree to reducing your tax credits over 3 years and this way the impact will be small enough in your wages .