Income Tax Return Error?

SwordofLight

Hi All,

I'm filling out my Income Tax return for 2021 - and confused by some of the -uneditable- details of employment.

I worked as usual up until an event at the start of March which forced me to stop working in April due to illness. Although there was a massive problem in payroll admin at the time, which delayed my application for Illness Benefit, I began receiving IB from about the start of May or end of April.

Here is the issue - on the income tax return, at the start under employment details, it states 'Pay for Income Tax': €28657 (I'm using fictional sums), which seems to be about €10000 below my gross salary - not sure if is correct - should it state the amount I was actually paid before moving to IB? Or the amount including IB?

Then it says Income Tax Paid: about €2-3k; Pay for USC, and USC paid.

What rang alarm bells for me is at the end it states Amount on Revenue Record/ Declared i.e. doesn't this mean what I will be paying tax on ? So I could get a bill saying I owe tax? Isn't it all taken care of through payroll automatically and reflected on my payslips? I made no money in 2021 and instead forked out on medical bills due to injury, which I am trying to enter as expenses to recoup a little bit.

Any advice at all? Anyone familiar with the form? Maybe I'm getting my knickers in a twist for no reason, I'm not great with tax.

ari101

Pay for Income Tax is only the gross amounts paid (so if you were on unpaid leave, or a reduced sick pay because you were getting the Illness Benefit directly, your pay should be lower than your contracted gross salary), it should equal the total of the gross amounts for all payslips from that employment in that period.

Income from social welfare is shown separately on tax return.

If you have both PAYE income and social welfare benefits, it is possible that your tax credits/bands applied to each are not correct. Sometimes when you get social welfare the information doesn't flow timely to Revenue or you get switched from cumulative to week 1 basis and it doesn't balance out til you do a tax return. It can go either way.

On your MyAccount have you gone to request statement of liability - when you first click request you should see a list of all your sources of income and any estimated over or under payments at the top and by section 'preliminary over/under payment' :

See example of revenues you tube channel:

https://youtu.be/H_JjrFXD-xg

If you have medical expenses to claim you can also use that to reduce a prelim overpayment (if any) by submitting details in a tax return as shown in this vid.

SwordofLight

Thanks a lot for your response!

Something strange is going on with these figures.

So for starters, yes I recall first going into Statement of Liability and seeing I owe €0.43c. But I wondered if the figures are correct and if I am due anything back. Maybe I will be once my medical expenses are logged.

The Pay for Income Tax figure is not correct I don't think. But is difficult to figure out. I stopped working the end of April, at that point my gross was about €14k.

Then there was HSE payroll admin problems (the HSE IT cock up in May) with payroll. I seem to have received usual pay until about June (on the payslip it changed from stating GP at the end of the entry to SP (Social Protection?)), which payroll later requested back from me saying there was an overpayment. Then it seemed to be 2/3 pay for a month, then halved to 1/3, the payments are all different for months, until I contacted Dept Social Protection directly in Sept and began receiving regular payments. I visit the GP regularly to top the dates up. Something I struggle to understand is why I still received payslips with my IB payment on them - maybe because I am in a state of 'ghost' employment where I'm still under contract.

If I've paid tax on a sum of money recorded as my Pay for Income Tax figure, then it needs to be rectified and refunded I'd imagine. But how do I do that, if it involves contacting HSE payroll I'd prefer to lose the money haha

ari101

You'd need someone to go through the actual numbers who understands your contractual entitlements, and has information about how benefits were mandated and any correction calculations, etc. to know if it is right.

SwordofLight

I think I will have to just query it with payroll somehow if the opportunity arises in the future. Maybe if there was just 43c owing then all is as it should be.

There are tax credits, Personal, and Employee, coming to nearly 2k each, don't know where that would've come from? I didn't log anything. (maybe I'd be due something back because of those credits, but for the incorrect Pay for Income Tax figure).

ari101

Every body automatically gets tax credits, it's how the system works, as a PAYE worker you have a minimum 3400 (personal + PAYE), if you have been on benefits some of those should have been allocated to cover the tax payable on benefits which are paid net of tax by social welfare. If you are married they can be shared with a spouse so you won't always see those exact amounts.

It sounds like you need to find a person you trust to discuss the numbers with, someone who understands the tax system.

SwordofLight

Yes it sounds like I need some help with it for sure, I wonder if I rang citizen's information or revenue could they help. Let's see.

ari101

Your job should be able to explain your gross pay calculation. You can review your benefits via My welfare.

For taxes, try the information at these to understand better and refine your questions, they show or link to details of how taxes are calculated:

https://www.revenue.ie/en/life-events-and-personal-circumstances/moving-to-or-from-ireland/moving-or-returning-to-ireland/the-tax-system-in-ireland.aspx

(Second link doesn't want to show, google citizens information, "how your tax is calculated")