Can you retrospectively apply joint assessment option

J

JHNora

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Hi all, would appreciate if someone could offer some insight into the following;

- Married in 2016
- Updated civil status with Revenue Jan 2024
- Remained “single assessed” as wasn’t sure what changing to “jointly assessed” would mean

Can I change my assessment type to “joint” on Revenue now? Can’t see an option for this, other than my civil status is “married” with a single personal tax credit.

Secondly, my wife has been off a lot over the past 5 years (maternity leaves). There’s definitely years where she wouldn’t have used even the 20% threshold, whereas I was paying tax at the higher rate. Is it possible to retrospectively apply “joint assessment” or a way of applying the balance of her unused 20% against the higher rate I paid?!

Thank you in advance.
 
JHNora said:
Hi all, would appreciate if someone could offer some insight into the following;

- Married in 2016
- Updated civil status with Revenue Jan 2024
- Remained “single assessed” as wasn’t sure what changing to “jointly assessed” would mean

Can I change my assessment type to “joint” on Revenue now? Can’t see an option for this, other than my civil status is “married” with a single personal tax credit.

Secondly, my wife has been off a lot over the past 5 years (maternity leaves). There’s definitely years where she wouldn’t have used even the 20% threshold, whereas I was paying tax at the higher rate. Is it possible to retrospectively apply “joint assessment” or a way of applying the balance of her unused 20% against the higher rate I paid?!

Thank you in advance.
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There are three basis of assessment for those married couples. Joint assessment, separate assessment and separate treatment. What have you opted for when you contacted Revenue? If you opted for separate treatment then you are buggered as basis of assessment can only be altered going forward. If you opted for separate assessment then that's pretty much the same as joint assessment but is more work.
 
Hi, many thanks for your reply. We opted for seperate treatment when we updated our civil status in January this year (unfortunately, it seems). For the years prior, although we were married, we were noted as “single”. As we were recorded as single for the years 2016 to January 2024, do you know if we can now select joint assessment for those years? And for the year 2024, is it possible at this point to update to be jointly assessed?
Thank you
 
JHNora said:
Hi, many thanks for your reply. We opted for seperate treatment when we updated our civil status in January this year (unfortunately, it seems). For the years prior, although we were married, we were noted as “single”. As we were recorded as single for the years 2016 to January 2024, do you know if we can now select joint assessment for those years? And for the year 2024, is it possible at this point to update to be jointly assessed?
Thank you
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Too late I'm afraid for the prior years. When you provided your date of marriage and advised you wanted separate treatment that would have been applied to those years already. It's also too late to alter 2024. You can only opt to change to Joint assessment for 2025 onwards.

You can of course ask Revenue if they will alter it for the prior years but retrospective altering of basis of assessment should not be possible.
 
Thank you for the information. I just had a check there to be sure it was single treatment that was selected (as I was almost certain it was), but the acknowledgment received from revenue noted “As requested, I have updated your civil status to married and separately assessed.” Is there a way of checking online which option single treatment or single assessment has been applied? The only thing I can see is our civil status is updated to married but no reference to the treatment.
To be honest, none of this ever really crossed our minds up until this year - we were both equal earners when we married and just left it as we didn’t think it would make much difference. The years my wife was on maternity leave are what we would benefit from - regrettably, we didn’t focus in on that at the time. We had to give things attention this year as we were claiming incapacitated child tax credit for our son and we also started to look at the fact that we might be moving towards a one salary house for the next few years.
 
You cannot apply for joint assessment for prior years but you can elect to be jointly assessed for this year - TCA 1997 s 1018.
When you update your status you must also update your basis of assessment to joint assessment.

You must nominate an assessable spouse, i.e., I assume that would be you, to be assessable on the combined income.
You do this by completing an Assessable Spouse Election form signed by you both.

See Marriage and civil partnerships from Revenue's website and select Joint Assessment for information on using myAccount.
 
We were in a similar situation to the OP about 15 years ago. Our accountant updated our civil status and I noticed he left us separately assessed. I queried this with him and he said it wouldn't make any difference. Roll on a few years and then came some unpaid maternity leave. He tried to retrospectively change us to joint assessment for the previous year and he found out it was not possible to do until the following year.

I did some research myself and found that Revenue should not separately assess a married couple unless they have a declaration from the couple that this is their wish. Our accountant put this to Revenue and they agreed to retrospectively apply joint assessment for us.

This provision may have changed or your circumstances could differ slightly but I would suggest you should look into it.
 
I've been telling people here again and again for years that it's a very bad idea for a married couple to be separately assessed unless their marriage is failing - even if they are both high earners or low earners.

I've had to do so yet again within the past week or so.

This thread should be framed
 
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relax carry on said:
There are three basis of assessment for those married couples. Joint assessment, separate assessment and separate treatment. What have you opted for when you contacted Revenue? If you opted for separate treatment then you are buggered as basis of assessment can only be altered going forward. If you opted for separate assessment then that's pretty much the same as joint assessment but is more work.
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Hi all, I contacted Revenue this morning and the tax treatment opted for in January 2024 when our status was updated was “Married, Seperately Assessed” - which is different to Married, Seperate Treatment”. The lady I spoke to didn’t seem to think it was impossible to retrospectively review the last four years and where possible, give me the benefit of my wife’s unused tax band. The details have been sent to them so it remains to be seen what comes back.
Many thanks for the replies and view points, much appreciated.
 
relax carry on said:
Too late I'm afraid for the prior years. When you provided your date of marriage and advised you wanted separate treatment that would have been applied to those years already. It's also too late to alter 2024. You can only opt to change to Joint assessment for 2025 onwards.

You can of course ask Revenue if they will alter it for the prior years but retrospective altering of basis of assessment should not be possible.
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relax carry on said:
There are three basis of assessment for those married couples. Joint assessment, separate assessment and separate treatment. What have you opted for when you contacted Revenue? If you opted for separate treatment then you are buggered as basis of assessment can only be altered going forward. If you opted for separate assessment then that's pretty much the same as joint assessment but is more work.
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@relax carry on thank you in particular for highlighting separate assessed/separate treatment…it prompted me to double check which was selected. I just took it that we were treated as single individuals based on the use of “seperate”
 
JHNora said:
@relax carry on thank you in particular for highlighting separate assessed/separate treatment…it prompted me to double check which was selected. I just took it that we were treated as single individuals based on the use of “seperate”
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No bother. Glad you hadn't selected separate treatment and were able to obtain the benefits of separate assessment. It's essentially the same outcome as joint assessment just more of an administrative pain and doesn't allow active tax year flexibility.
 
JHNora said:
The lady I spoke to didn’t seem to think it was impossible to retrospectively review the last four years and where possible, give me the benefit of my wife’s unused tax band.
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I would recheck that.

You only advised Revenue of your marriage in 2024.

Separate Assessment cannot be backdated. See link I posted above & select Separate Assessment, which states:

"When you request separate assessment, it cannot be backdated and it lasts until you request to change it. The spouse or civil partner who made the request must also be the one to withdraw it".
 
Sophrosyne said:
I would recheck that.

You only advised Revenue of your marriage in 2024.

Separate Assessment cannot be backdated. See link I posted above & select Separate Assessment, which states:

"When you request separate assessment, it cannot be backdated and it lasts until you request to change it. The spouse or civil partner who made the request must also be the one to withdraw it".
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I’m not saying that anything will be approved, simply just that the lady I spoke to today asked me to put all the details in writing and, taking account of my own circumstances, they would review the previous years. That’s all I can ask for, I guess.

Additionally, seperate assessment is beneficial for this year as it’s one of the years my wife is on maternity leave. As per the conversation today, we can’t alter things now but we will be able to make adjustments between us in January. What I initially understood was that separate treatment was selected which would have ruled out any benefit to this year.

Appreciate you taking the time to respond.
 
Can you not just amend your tax return for the previous four years to tick the joint assessment box which should then trigger refunds which can be paid because it’s inside the four years?
 
Gordon Gekko said:
Can you not just amend your tax return for the previous four years to tick the joint assessment box which should then trigger refunds which can be paid because it’s inside the four years?
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Would be incredible if it was that straight forward…I’ll certainly look into it! Thanks very much.
 
No you can't, you must elect for joint assessment by 31st of March in the year , if you haven't , you can't go back and do it
 
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