Education Tax Relief Question

shawty

Hi,

Could some one please confirm my calculations are correct for the tax relief I can claim for my college course (once fees are paid).

I am doing a 2 year masters which started in Sept 2017 and will finish in May/June 2019. The course costs €12,000 or €6,000 per year. It is part-time.

Looking at the Citizens Information website I see I can claim a total of €7,000 back on a single course. Firstly, I wanted to confirm if that was correct or whether I could claim back on €7000 per year? Revenue have some good information on it also here but I still want to confirm my calculations.

There is also a deduction of €1,500 which must be considered for part-time courses.

So by my calculations I need to pay €7,000 in one of the years (e.g. 2018) and can then claim back 20% of €7,000 - €1,500. So regardless of the price or duration of the course the max I can get back is €1,100?

I know it's also possible to split the €7,000 relief over the years of the course but I didn't immediately see how that would get me more than €1,100.

If I am correct on above, it seems pretty sneaky to advertise a 20% tax relief and then (1) make it so it's not actually 20% and (2) make it so unsuspecting folk who have to do these calculations themselves (incorrectly like I might have just done) actually end up receiving back less than the maximum they could have received!!

Ciaran

The €7,000 limit is per year, per course.

From your figures, you'd be due a credit of: (6,000-1500) @ 20% = €900 each year so €1,800 in total.

shawty

Ciaran wrote: »

The €7,000 limit is per year, per course.

From your figures, you'd be due a credit of: (6,000-1500) @ 20% = €900 each year so €1,800 in total.

Thank you, that's a bit better. Since the four semesters are actually over 3 years (2017, 2018 and 2019) I may need to get the calculator out again to figure out my best option.

If it is €7000 per year, the website - link - is quite misleading.

It says "The limit on tuition fees you can claim is €7,000 per course." and " If so, the amount of qualifying fees is restricted to €7,000 per course and a single disregard amount is applied to the claim."

gerrybbadd

The €7K is per academic year, rather than for the duration of the course

shawty

gerrybbadd wrote: »

The €7K is per academic year, rather than for the duration of the course

Ok - can I ask how you know that and whether the information is available in print somewhere? 7k per academic year makes more sense.
"€7,000 per course" doesn't suggest that though. The examples on the website (paying with installments) suggest that you need to consider the year of payment too so it seems it makes sense for me to front-load the payment and pay for academic year one in full in 2017 and then do the same for year two in 2018, otherwise they make you split the €7000 across the years and apply the €1,500 deduction twice.
Very straightforward process!

tanit

shawty wrote: »

Ok - can I ask how you know that and whether the information is available in print somewhere? 7k per academic year makes more sense.
"€7,000 per course" doesn't suggest that though. The examples on the website (paying with installments) suggest that you need to consider the year of payment too so it seems it makes sense for me to front-load the payment and pay for academic year one in full in 2017 and then do the same for year two in 2018, otherwise they make you split the €7000 across the years and apply the €1,500 deduction twice.
Very straightforward process!

There are quite a few accountants and tax advisers along with people working in Revenue plus retarded student accountants like me hanging around this place. By their names my guess it's that they are going to be one of the first three types. It's good advice the one they have given you for free if you have any other queries either call Revenue or get a proper appointment with an accountant or tax adviser.

shawty

tanit wrote: »

There are quite a few accountants and tax advisers along with people working in Revenue plus retarded student accountants like me hanging around this place. By their names my guess it's that they are going to be one of the first three types. It's good advice the one they have given you for free if you have any other queries either call Revenue or get a proper appointment with an accountant or tax adviser.

Not too sure what to make of that ramble. All main original questions remain without a clear answer.

CIARAN_BOYLE

shawty wrote: »

Ok - can I ask how you know that and whether the information is available in print somewhere? 7k per academic year makes more sense.

It's €7000 per course in any given academic year. I know that because I've worked in the field and I've claimed tax relief on multiple years of a course and those claims have been part of returns queried at revenue audit.

If you want it written down somewhere look at the relevant legislation and not Revenues badly written summary explanations.

tanit

shawty wrote: »

Not too sure what to make of that ramble. All main original questions remain without a clear answer.

As I said it's better if you call Revenue, give them the details and they will tell you exactly what you need to do. Remember that the course will need to be in the approved list as it's not a general relief for all Third level education