# USC has increased for spouse



## johnd (26 Jan 2012)

The amount in USC my wife pays has increased by over 50 euro a month. She earns 25,000 a year working school term and it appears the USC is being tax at 7% but i understood changes in 2012 meant it was on a sliding scale - 2% first 10,00; 4% next 5,000 andd 7% on the remainder?


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## mandelbrot (26 Jan 2012)

The way the USC is administered has changed since the start of this year. It's now issued cumulatively, with a periodic cut-off point, similar to how the tax bands work.

It's most likely your wife's employer hasn't been allocated some / all of your wife's USC cut-off. This might be because she is on record as having more than one employer, and it's being allocated between her employments..?

Either way, she should ask whoever is doing the payroll to explain the increase, and if necessary contact the tax office to allocate all of her USC cut-off to this job if it's her only employment.


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## johnd (26 Jan 2012)

mandelbrot said:


> The way the USC is administered has changed since the start of this year. It's now issued cumulatively, with a periodic cut-off point, similar to how the tax bands work.
> 
> It's most likely your wife's employer hasn't been allocated some / all of your wife's USC cut-off. This might be because she is on record as having more than one employer, and it's being allocated between her employments..?
> 
> Either way, she should ask whoever is doing the payroll to explain the increase, and if necessary contact the tax office to allocate all of her USC cut-off to this job if it's her only employment.



Thank you for your reply. Her employer has told her these are the figures supplied by the tax office. It is her only employment,  she works in a school for the school year and is in receipt of jobseekers benefit during the Summer months.


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## mandelbrot (26 Jan 2012)

That's not exactly informative! Did they say whether the amount allocated is her whole USC band.

So she should probably check with the tax office.


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## Gervan (26 Jan 2012)

Tax credit certs issued for each taxpayer last December. These include the USC rates and cut-off points applicable to each particular individual. What does it say on your wife's cert?


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## johnd (27 Jan 2012)

Gervan, she is paid monthly and the allocation of her USC rates are as follows; 836.34 at 2%; 498.34 at 4%; and the remainer at 7%. Her tax credit is 137.50 per month and the rate band at 20% is 1,983.34 monthly. This month her USC charge was 192 compared with 135 last year.

Hope this information is of help? Thanks for your interest.


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## mandelbrot (27 Jan 2012)

johnd said:


> Gervan, she is paid monthly and the allocation of her USC rates are as follows; 836.34 at 2%; 498.34 at 4%; and the remainer at 7%. Her tax credit is 137.50 per month and the rate band at 20% is 1,983.34 monthly. This month her USC charge was 192 compared with 135 last year.
> 
> Hope this information is of help? Thanks for your interest.


 
OK, well it appears all of her USC band is allocated to the job, and based on those figures, if her monthly gross is about €3,554 then she is paying the correct amount of USC currently.

In which case maybe just stop digging in relation to last year's USC...


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## ClubMan (27 Jan 2012)

Gervan said:


> Tax credit certs issued for each taxpayer last December.


Not necessarily. Neither I nor my employer have received updated details and the latest on my _PAYE Anytime _account is still the 2011 one.


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## elcato (27 Jan 2012)

> if her monthly gross is about €3,554 then she is paying the correct amount of USC currently.


According to the original post it's 2083.33 pm os the USC figure makes no sense, unless she is getting a large Employer Pension contrbution paid for her


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## johnd (27 Jan 2012)

mandelbrot said:


> OK, well it appears all of her USC band is allocated to the job, and based on those figures, if her monthly gross is about €3,554 then she is paying the correct amount of USC currently.
> 
> In which case maybe just stop digging in relation to last year's USC...




Thank you all for your replies - her gross salary per month is 2746.67, the income tax take is correct, its only the USC we are questioning.


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## elcato (27 Jan 2012)

Is she paying into a pension which is topped up by her employer ? Does she get any BIK of any kind ? The UB on the months she is off is calculated a taxable pay now so this may have a bearing on it. Is it the first time she has claimed the UB while off in the summer ?


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## johnd (27 Jan 2012)

elcato,  The UB is taxed and that is taken into consideration in her tax credits.  She also pays AVC of 600 month but this is also taken into consideration for tax purposes. Her employer will not acccept they might be wrong and there is a 10 minute wait on the phone to speak to someone in the tax office. When she phoned yesterday the time wait kept getting longer and she eventually had to hang up.


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## elcato (27 Jan 2012)

> The UB is taxed and that is taken into consideration in her tax credits


But is it ? If you crunch the figures you gave above with a monthly gross of  2746.67 you get about 135 for the USC. But the USC is also due on the UB she receives during the summer which I believe is in the region of 200 x 4 months * 7% is 56. If you add this to the original 135 its about 191. Does this not explain the amount on the paysliip ?


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## mandelbrot (27 Jan 2012)

elcato said:


> But is it ? If you crunch the figures you gave above with a monthly gross of 2746.67 you get about 135 for the USC. But the USC is also due on the UB she receives during the summer which I believe is in the region of 200 x 4 months * 7% is 56. If you add this to the original 135 its about 191. Does this not explain the amount on the paysliip ?


 
AFAIK payments from DSP aren't liable to USC, so I don't see how it can be the explanation...


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## elcato (27 Jan 2012)

> AFAIK payments from DSP aren't liable to USC,


Maybe their employer (or dare I say it, someone in revenue) believes they are.


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## mandelbrot (27 Jan 2012)

elcato said:


> Maybe their employer (or dare I say it, someone in revenue) believes they are.


 
Well it doesn't sound like Revenue anyway, because according to OP they have issued a cumulative USC cert to the employer with all of the USC allowance / bands, allocated to the employment.

Hence I calculated that based on those figures, the OPs wife would have to be on a gross of c.€3,554 p.m. to be liable for €192 in USC. (836.34 @ 2% + 498.34 @ 4% + 2,219 @ 7%).

Sounds like the employer is doing something a bit funny in the payroll calculation...


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## johnd (28 Jan 2012)

Thank you all for your replies and assistance. My wife contacted the tax office and the figure of 135 is the correct amount that should be deducted. She e-mailed the payroll department so hopefully they will correct the over payment. 

The woman in the tax office was relly helpful and told my wife that should she have any problem with the man in accounts to get him to contact her and she'd sort him out


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## elcato (30 Jan 2012)

> The woman in the tax office was relly helpful and told my wife that  should she have any problem with the man in accounts to get him to  contact her and she'd sort him out


Well done revenue.


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