# How much can one earn tax free.



## Daddy (11 Oct 2013)

Hi,

What is the amount one can earn tax free !   My son is a student hoping to get a job in McDonalds.   Is there a figure he can earn before paying any tax.

Thanks


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## DB74 (11 Oct 2013)

Well there's 3 different types of tax, PAYE, PRSI, & USC, and they all have different thresholds

For a normal single guy with basic tax cut-offs & credits etc the weekly thresholds are

PAYE - €317.31
PRSI - €352.00
USC - €193.00

so he can earn €193 per week without paying any taxes whatsoever but even if he earned €317.31 he would only pay about €9.11 in USC and that would be it as far as taxes payable goes.

Those figures are based on a full year, he would have some unused USC & PAYE cut-offs so realistically if he has no other income in 2012 he could earn a lot more than €193  week between now and the end of the year and pay little or no tax at all.

Hope that helps


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## Daddy (11 Oct 2013)

Thanks - that does help.

My son is a 16 year old T/Y student.

So he has no income thus far in 2013 and if he earns say 5k between now and Christmas
he would have practically zero tax to pay - is that right !


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## vandriver (11 Oct 2013)

What's so important about knowing the weekly amount you can earn tax free?If your son gets loads of hours and earns in excess of the figures above,he will a bit of tax on the balance.So what?


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## Black Sheep (11 Oct 2013)

Could you get your son to deal with his own taxes. He'll very quickly get the hang of it if he finds himself on emergency tax. 
If he's old enough to earn the money he's old enough to deal with the taxes


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## deadlyduck (15 Oct 2013)

Income tax calculator [spreadsheet for Excel 2007 or higher] here: http://taxcalc.eu/monthlyss


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## DB74 (15 Oct 2013)

Daddy said:


> Thanks - that does help.
> 
> My son is a 16 year old T/Y student.
> 
> ...



In theory that is correct. However as it is quite late in the year Revenue may not issue a _cumulative_ tax credit cert, instead they may issue a _Week 1_ cert. This means that instead of being able to use the 9 months of unused tax credits accumulated since January, he can only use 1 week's credits per week. So he will some pay PAYE & USC each and every week but he can reclaim it all in 2014 once he gets his P60 from his employer.


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