# Med1 question - self-employed



## chook (2 Mar 2011)

My partner and I are both freelancers.
In mid 2008 my partner got ill and we incurred just over 1000 Euro in medical expenses before he was granted a medical card (due to getting a few € SWA after he got ill). He earned very little that year and was not liable to pay income tax, only minimum PRSI. Therefore I thought at the time that he could not claim relief for health expenses (zero minus 200 is still zero).
Thanks to AAM I recently learned that I can claim for him and that I can do so retrospectively for 2008. 200€ to have or not to have ... 

Filling out the form I'm stuck on the section 


> *Income Details of Claimant PPS No*.
> Please enter details of *Income that was subject to PAYE *[my emphasis] in the year of claim (these can be obtained from your P60 or final payslip).
> If you or your spouse had more than one employment/pension on the 31st of December please list the Total Pay and Total Tax Deducted for each employment/pension on a separate sheet.


Neither of us had any income subject to PAYE (since we are self-employed)

Question:
What do I fill in in that section? I know that I can make a claim as a self-employed - Form11 caters for that, but has long since been submitted. Or do I have to fill out an amended Form11 for 2008?

Any hints/experiences gratefully received.


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## DB74 (2 Mar 2011)

Just write "self-employment" on the Med1

There is no €200 (it actually used to be €250 for a couple) limit since 2007

If you didn't pay any PAYE in 2008 then AFAIK you cannot get a refund of PAYE for that year.


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## kennyb3 (2 Mar 2011)

DB74 is correct, if you didnt pay any PAYE you cant get a refund


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## Mrs Vimes (2 Mar 2011)

I'm assuming you paid income tax in the years in question?

If so you can of course claim the tax relief.

You will need to submit an amendment to your Form 11, I reckon a letter would do asking them to reissue your notice of assessment including the medical expenses, but you should call your local tax office and check.

Sybil


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## kennyb3 (3 Mar 2011)

Mrs Vimes said:


> I'm assuming you paid income tax in the years in question?
> 
> If so you can of course claim the tax relief.
> 
> ...


 
I think if you read their post again you will see that it says there was no liability to income tax. With a low level of income, relevant credits would cover any tax.


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## Mrs Vimes (3 Mar 2011)

OP says that her husband had no liability to income tax but implies that she did:



chook said:


> Thanks to AAM I recently learned that *I can claim for him* and that I can do so retrospectively for 2008. 200€ to have or not to have ...
> 
> Filling out the form I'm stuck on the section
> Neither of us had any income subject to PAYE (since we are self-employed)



OP, you need to amend your Form 11 to get a new notice of assessment and any refund due will issue.

Sybil


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## chook (3 Mar 2011)

Thank you all for your comments. Sybil is right, the reason my partner had not claimed was that he was not liable to pay income tax that year. It was news to me that *I* could have claimed for him.

By the way, upon reading and re-reading I found that it is not actually stated anywhere (I could find) on revenue.ie that if the claim for relief exceeds income tax paid in the relevant year, one can only claim up to the amount paid in income tax or that if no income tax was paid one could not claim. It just says that relief is granted at the standard rate (i.e. 20%).
Perhaps it is so implied in the term "tax relief", I don't know, but it does not explicitly say so.


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## chook (3 Mar 2011)

kennyb3 said:


> With a low level of income, relevant credits would cover any tax.


I wish that was the case... 20% on anything over 159€/week (8250€/year, i.e. less than the dole), plus PRSI, plus UBC oops USC. 
See


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