Returned to work after maternity

mirrorwall14

Hi, hoping someone can help me out here! I had a baby in January and returned to work at the end of May. Ny maternity ran end of nov-end of May. My employer tops up maternity benefit to my full salary but I did receive the benefit directly rather than though my employer. I took no additional leave and both myself and my husband earn in the top tax bracket so no credits were transferred.

I'm back at work now and my wages are down 100e a month (this despite government budget changes which would have given a slight increase). Can anyone tell me if this is normal? It's a bit of a pain tbh!

sambucus nigra

Likely due to maternity benefit being taxable now; as you received maternity benefit January-May directly from the DSP in the 2015 tax year without paying any tax on it, the tax due is probably being collected now through your wages via reduction of your credits/rate band.

chickenlicken2

The tax is collected on your maternity pay as you receive it by your tax credits being reduced so you are paying more paye in your payslip.

However the maternity benefit isn't subject to usc or prsi. Maternity benefit has stopped so you are back to normal salary.

So it's the additional usc and prsi on the 230 per week.

P.s. do a balancing statement at end of year.

mirrorwall14

I'm comparing to before maternity benefit though entirely so shouldn't it be back to normal salary now? If as you say I (and revenue confirmed) am back to normal tax now. I've got onto my employer as revenue advised but I though the whole point of amending the tax cert while on maternity benefit was so that you didn't owe tax when you started back? Tax is so confusing

chickenlicken2

What's higher? Paye prsi or usc?

What's the basis on the payslip WEEK 1/Month 1 or Normal/Cumul.

mirrorwall14

I'm not at home to root out my older payslips (I copped from my online banking while budgeting for childcare) so I'll have to check on Saturday! Surely any tax should have been applied all along, it seems mental to penalise women just as they re-enter the workforce and start forking out for childcare!

chickenlicken2

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

I'm not at home to root out my older payslips (I copped from my online banking while budgeting for childcare) so I'll have to check on Saturday! Surely any tax should have been applied all along, it seems mental to penalise women just as they re-enter the workforce and start forking out for childcare!

It is but the revenue have a strange way of collecting the tax on welfare. Check your most recent payslip for SRCOP Credit and Tax Basis and you'll be able to see more.

allthedoyles

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

I'm not at home to root out my older payslips (I copped from my online banking while budgeting for childcare) so I'll have to check on Saturday! Surely any tax should have been applied all along, it seems mental to penalise women just as they re-enter the workforce and start forking out for childcare!

OP - Its easy to see where you coming from as you had the same gross pay all along but from 2 different sources , so you expect to have the same net pay as well .

There are 2 different tax years involved here , so if you want everything to work out accurately , you ask tax office for a P21 for 2014 , which will include your maternity benefit received in 2014.

This will balance up 2014 for you .

Then you get the tax office to use the exact amount of maternity benefit received in 2015 , and get them to deduct this from your tax credits etc .

Tax office must then send a cumulative tax credit details to your employer and when employer implements this, your wages should work out as normal .

mirrorwall14

So the tax cert they automatically issue isn't necessarily right? Salary have checked and while the difference isn't as big this month (around 45e) it will stay at this reduction until the end of the year on the tax cert the revenue issued

Edit:
Under the ytd section of my payslip I've got a tax due greater than the tax paid, is that normal? Maybe I did under pay. And I'm on cumulative

TinyTot165

Its probably the tax owed on the maternity benefit, i'm in the same position unfortunately. AFAIK revenue reduce the tax credits over the course of the year for the tax due on the maternity benefit rather than over the course of the benefit itself which would make more sense. I'm just looking forward to the increase in January when it goes back to normal.

mirrorwall14

Well my last edit was wrong, I figured that one out. As you say TinyTot, this all seems to make no sense. On the plus side I took my finger out and claimed for all my medical receipts and realised that my flat rate expenses credit has been under calculated by like 400e for the last four years so P21's ordered for all them

chickenlicken2

It's possibly to do with the maternity benefit and the reduced credits being split over two tax years.
You didn't switch your personal credit to your husband or anything this year? I would say do a balancing statement for last year. If your cumulative this year's will even out for you.

mirrorwall14

Probably. Maternity benefit is 230 a week for 26 weeks correct? Because according to my online PAYE the total maternity benefit paid to me by adding the two years income gross amounts totals 6553 which works out at 252.04e a week.... Shouldn't the two gross figures add up to 5,980?

RentDayBlues

Call revenue, the tax situation for maternity is calculated over 12 months not the 26 weeks is its always recommended to contact revenue once you return to work.

mirrorwall14

I did RentDayBlues, they said everything is correct. Which obviously doesn't help me much.

At the moment I'm confused by the two totals for maternity benefit income not adding to 5,980 which would be 26*230 and the fact that my P60 shows a figure of 920.02 of a reduction in tax credit for Maternity benefit and I don't know how they calculated that.

Oh and I didn't move any tax credits, we're both in the top tax band so wouldn't have made any odds

chickenlicken2

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

I did RentDayBlues, they said everything is correct. Which obviously doesn't help me much.

At the moment I'm confused by the two totals for maternity benefit income not adding to 5,980 which would be 26*230 and the fact that my P60 shows a figure of 920.02 of a reduction in tax credit for Maternity benefit and I don't know how they calculated that.

Oh and I didn't move any tax credits, we're both in the top tax band so wouldn't have made any odds

920.02 divided by .2 to gross divided by 230 to give you the number of weeks. Gives you 20 weeks which would be the amount received this tax year.

Definitely check out the amount they had for last year as the Revenue record is higher than what was received. You didn't get illness benefit or anything either year? You might need to confirm with Welfare.

mirrorwall14

Great thanks, that explains that bit! Now to figure out why the total income isn't 5980!

chickenlicken2

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Great thanks, that explains that bit! Now to figure out why the total income isn't 5980!

Just edited my post. Actually you note the P60 has the reduced amount rather than the tax credit cert for this year? So that was the reduced credits for last year.

Request a P21 this will crystallize a refund as you probably received 6 weeks benefit last year. Ring SW to confirm the amount for last year and advise Revenue of it.

mirrorwall14

Yeah I definitely received 6 weeks last year so looks like that explains the discrepancy, they have me marked down as getting more maternity benefit than I should have

TinyTot165

They had more maternity benefit down for me also, i rang them about it and they told me to get a statement from the maternity benefit department stating how much I received for each year and forward it onto them, they updated the amount once I did this and refunded some tax from last year.

mirrorwall14

TinyTot165 wrote: »

They had more maternity benefit down for me also, i rang them about it and they told me to get a statement from the maternity benefit department stating how much I received for each year and forward it onto them, they updated the amount once I did this and refunded some tax from last year.

Thanks tiny tot, can I ask how you contacted them?

chickenlicken2

Go to the contact locator on revenue pop in your pps and it will bring up contact details for you.

mirrorwall14

Oh I meant maternity! Well three phone calls later-revenue/maternity/revenue-I was right, total should be 5980. Revenue are amending and issueing a new tax cert. Thanks everyone!!

TinyTot165

Sorry mirrorwall only seeing this now, glad you got sorted.

mirrorwall14

No problem. One final question for the knowledgeable people! I'm looking at my P21's for the last few years. The income from Employments, Pensions
and other sources does not match the Employments, Incomes and Reliefs chargeable to USC- does anyone know why that might be? Is it because allowances don't have income tax applied but do have USC deducted?

chickenlicken2

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

No problem. One final question for the knowledgeable people! I'm looking at my P21's for the last few years. The income from Employments, Pensions
and other sources does not match the Employments, Incomes and Reliefs chargeable to USC- does anyone know why that might be?

Yeah USC income is probably higher. Pension deductions probably. Also various SW income is taxable but not subject to usc.

mirrorwall14

chickenlicken2 wrote: »

Yeah USC income is probably higher. Pension deductions probably. Also various SW income is taxable but not subject to usc.

Super thanks! Ended up owing money for one year but they haven't updated my credits for that year before the P21 so I'll have to ring them.