but if she was receiving mat benefit and being topped up by employer, so surely some/all has been liable to tax, so if she went on unpaid leave then whilst you could use some of her tax credits, your total income would be down net, but as she is going on unpaid at the end of march, she has some income for 2024 that can be allocated against the higher bracket where 2 people working/getting paid,
Yes, that true. I thought OP was just looking for longer term impact on household income of single vs dual income.
If you’re looking at 2024 in isolation and she goes to end March on full pay followed by 0 pay
The very rough estimate of the rebate she’ll be due at the end of year is.
(70,000/12*3 - 43,000/12*3)* 0.2 = 1,350 (this is essentially the proportion of her Jan - March pay charged at 40% that will ultimately drop to 20% when she doesn’t exceed cut off threshold at year end)
+
€3750 * 9/12 = 2,812 (proportion of tax credits that won’t be used by end March which she’ll be able to claim against tax paid in first 3 months). Some of this will go back to her until her income tax bill goes to 0. C. 1,200. Remaining €1600 will pass to OP.
So at end of 2024 combined you’ll get roughly €4.2k plus a small bit of a reduction in USC but nothing worth talking about.
This all assumes you currently are taxed on your own individual basis and are not already passing any credits or standard rate cut off to each other which is the revenue default for two earners well above cut off point. EDIT: it also assumes no pension contribution deductions which would reduce her tax and therefore refund. Would need to provide historic payslips to a financial advisor for anything more accurate
After that one-off 4.2k refund for 2024, for future years the monthly increase in net income is per original calculations on a full year basis of her not working.