Can i give unclaimed tax credits to my husband

[Curleysue]

Hi

My current employer pays me a net salary. I checked my Payslip and I do pay PRSI & PAYE. My question is: If my tax credits change I do not see this in my wages. I was speaking with someone during the week and they were telling me that i can claim tax relief on refuse collections, health insurance etc. However when I contacted the revenue and explained my situation they advised me that they do not deal in Nett Salaries and that all of the above should be claimed at source. I asked my employer about this and they advised me that they operate on a net salary only, my take home pay stays the same regardless if my tax credits go up. Both myself & my husband are on relatively low salaries and any extra income be it from tax credits due to us would be grately appreciated. Can i give my unclaimed tax credits to my husband as he does not work off a nett salary and if so how can i go about it. It is legal what my employer is doing?

 

[Graham_07]

If your employer is dealing in "net pay" and says that your net will not go up if your tax credits go up I would be interested to see what they would say if your tax credits fell as in that scenario the cost to the employer would rise for your net to stay the same.

If you are already paying PAYE then any increase in your tax credits or standard rate cut-off point should be reflected by a decrease in PAYE. As it is, because of the way they are doing it, any increase in your credits/cut-off point is only decreasing the cost to the employer as it costs them less to give you the same net.

That situation is not acceptable, although it does happen and I have encountered it many times over the years. Your pay should always be based on a gross starting point not a net.

The least you can have in tax credits is your PAYE credit, which for 2008 is €1,830. This is not transferable between spouses unlike the married credit of €3,660 which can be divided as you wish. There are also limits on the amount of standard rate cut off point which may be transferred although from what you say it is possible that you are standard rate (20%) taxpayers only.

You probably really need to sit down with your pay figures and tax certs someone familiar with the way tax credits work if you are not sure yourself as unfortunately Revenue will only do what you request with no follow on advice for any implications of the adjustments. My one fear would be that while your employer has said you get no increase if your credits go up there would certainly be some repercussions if your credits dropped. Again, this is not the way they should be handling it but one needs to bear this in mind.