Joint assessment

sillysocks

I'm starting a new job shortly after not having worked for a while. My income will be 30k pa. I'm married and my husband earns approx 46/47k. I'm guessing because my income is lower a joint assessment situation might be more favourable and would be best for us.

I haven't rung the tax office yet but I'm wondering whether I need to tell them how to split the tax credits between us or if they will calculate them for me on the basis of whatever would have the best outcome for myself and my husband?

chickenlicken2

Ring them.

sillysocks

Hoping to ring them today but just wasn't sure if I'd need to have any calculations done before I ring.

relax carry on

sillysocks wrote: »

Hoping to ring them today but just wasn't sure if I'd need to have any calculations done before I ring.

No need. Just call and give the approximate figures you both are earning.
I'm assuming you have already completed a form IT2 and are jointly assessed with your spouse already. If not you will not be able to sort this over the phone today.

sillysocks

Thanks, that's great!
Yes we're already jointly assessed, when I worked previously we earned pretty much the exact same so there was no need to work out the splits in credits.

allthedoyles

So if you already jointly assessed your OH , may already have your personal tax credit which will leave you with PAYE credit only .

sillysocks

I called the tax office and the woman wasn't too helpful. She did set me up with the new employer and we got the new cert today.
On this cert it shows my 1,650 paye credit which is reduced by 1,120 for the Jobseekers benefit I've been receiving. So my paye credit is 530 for the rest of the year. Then on the Personal Tax credit it has allocated the full 3,300 to my husband. Surely I should receive at least a portion of this - I know he earns more but I will still be earning enough (30k) to be paying a fair amount of tax.

Also, the 20% tax bands assigned are 19k to me and 43k to him. Again is this something that should be allocated out a bit more and is it possible for me to allocate that?

If I'm thinking correctly and I should be splitting out the two sections I might just try and do it myself online.

I know over the year the total between the two of us would right regardless but we would prefer it to be setup fairly and correctly from the start. Previously when I worked we earned pretty much the same so everything was just divided on the tax certs 50/50.

relax carry on

sillysocks wrote: »

I called the tax office and the woman wasn't too helpful. She did set me up with the new employer and we got the new cert today.
On this cert it shows my 1,650 paye credit which is reduced by 1,120 for the Jobseekers benefit I've been receiving. So my paye credit is 530 for the rest of the year. Then on the Personal Tax credit it has allocated the full 3,300 to my husband. Surely I should receive at least a portion of this - I know he earns more but I will still be earning enough (30k) to be paying a fair amount of tax.

Also, the 20% tax bands assigned are 19k to me and 43k to him. Again is this something that should be allocated out a bit more and is it possible for me to allocate that?

If I'm thinking correctly and I should be splitting out the two sections I might just try and do it myself online.

I know over the year the total between the two of us would right regardless but we would prefer it to be setup fairly and correctly from the start. Previously when I worked we earned pretty much the same so everything was just divided on the tax certs 50/50.

If your husband was using your personal tax credit (€1650) and transferable rate band (€9000) already this year, transferring it back to you at this point on a cumulative basis would mean he would have to pay a chunk of tax back in his next pay run.

Your remaining non transferable rate band and PAYE tax credit have been reduced by your taxable dsp payments up to this point. Your 530 tax credit covers 2650 paye free for the rest of the year. That leaves you with 16350 at 20% and anything above that at 41%.

As it all works out the same in the end with joint assessment, (you can't pay more tax via joint assessment versus if you were taxed as two single people) I'd leave everything as is right now and revert back to the 50/50 split in January next year.

sillysocks

relax carry on wrote: »

If your husband was using your personal tax credit (€1650) and transferable rate band (€9000) already this year, transferring it back to you at this point on a cumulative basis would mean he would have to pay a chunk of tax back in his next pay run.

Your remaining non transferable rate band and PAYE tax credit have been reduced by your taxable dsp payments up to this point. Your 530 tax credit covers 2650 paye free for the rest of the year. That leaves you with 16350 at 20% and anything above that at 41%.

As it all works out the same in the end with joint assessment, (you can't pay more tax via joint assessment versus if you were taxed as two single people) I'd leave everything as is right now and revert back to the 50/50 split in January next year.

Thank you very much, that makes total sense - I hadn't thought about how he would have used the credits etc already during the year so I'm glad I asked now. He may not have been happy with me if he ended up down a load of pay next month

I wil leave it until January so. And as you say with 16k allowed at 20% I should be under that as that's only from Aug - Dec. I was thinking I'd be getting charged 40% on a lot of the income - forgetting that I wouldn't be getting the full 30k for the rest of this year (unfortunately!).

Thanks again, you've been very helpful..... more so than the Revenue callcentre too!

allthedoyles

You tell us that you received a new cert and your husband has tax credits of 3300 and you a paye tax credit of 1650 giving a total of 4950e credits .

Well there is something missing , because as a married couple you are entitled to personal credits of 3300, and a paye tax credit of 1650 each giving you total tax credits of 6600e

sillysocks

allthedoyles wrote: »

You tell us that you received a new cert and your husband has tax credits of 3300 and you a paye tax credit of 1650 giving a total of 4950e credits .

Well there is something missing , because as a married couple you are entitled to personal credits of 3300, and a paye tax credit of 1650 each giving you total tax credits of 6600e

Yes sorry I just hadn't included his paye tax credit in my post as I thought that was standard and knew we each had a separate one of that if that makes sense. So yes he has the 3,300 personal and 1,650 paye. And I have the 1,650 paye. So from that perspective it's fine! It was just the split i wasn't sure of.
Will forget about it til January now anyway!

Stheno

sillysocks wrote: »

Yes sorry I just hadn't included his paye tax credit in my post as I thought that was standard and knew we each had a separate one of that if that makes sense. So yes he has the 3,300 personal and 1,650 paye. And I have the 1,650 paye. So from that perspective it's fine! It was just the split i wasn't sure of.
Will forget about it til January now anyway!

In January if your income is going to be fixed at 30k for the year, then ask the revenue to assign the remainder of the 20% rate you won't use to your husband