Joint Tax Assessment

Hi First time poster , admittedly i know very little about Tax and how or what i can claim. My wife has been unemployed the past two years , she looks after our daughter. Im the sole earner in the house . We were married the past 7 years , but i never informed revenue as i didn't realise it matters. I'm earning approx. 70K per year gross i am not self employed (PAYE) . Im wondering if there's any Tax i can claim back for the past couple of years while my wife has been unemployed. Should i get us Jointly assessed by revenue , is that worth something in reduced tax on my salary? All advice is gratefully appreciated.

Does your tax credits and your SRCOP reflect the fact that you are a 1-earner married couple?

I presume you have been claiming the Home Carers tax credit?

If you like, list your tax credits in a reply, and we can comment.


You say your wife is unemployed. Is she receiveing JSB or JSA?

My wife is not claiming JSA. We are not claiming any additional tax credits. We are not claiming carers tax credit. I'm not sure what a SRCOP is ? But we are not even married in revenues eyes presently. I guess my lack of knowledge in the area is fairly embarrassing. But any other advice is appreciated.

Here are a few points:

(1) it appears you are missing out on thousands of euro of tax relief / tax credits
(2) look at your most recent payslip, and check the tax credits and the SRCOP. Put them in a reply here
(3) do you have a Revenue MyAccount? If not, set one up
(4) your wife is not unemployed, she is a SAHP, and as such, you should be claiming the Home Carers tax credit. This alone is worth 1800 per year [I hope she doesn't kill you when she finds out]
(5) you need to complete the Notice of Marriage form and submit to the Revenue
(6) it looks like you don't do annual tax returns? Have you ever claimed tax relief on medical expenses?
(7) it looks like you need to do tax returns for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024

Great advice Protocol.
The amount of people who are losing out on so many tax credits they are entitled to us is surreal.
Flat rate expenses, albeit small credits, add up also and may also be allowed depending on your profession @Daddy007.
Another one I came across recently, and so many people unaware of same, was for those tax payers who paid insufficient tax to enable Revenue refund the mortgage interest paid comparable 2023-v-2022, can be claimed via the DEASP (Homeowners Once-Off Payment) HOP 1 form.
I firmly believe a lot of people are terrified to open up a Revenue MyAccount, but it is so important to do so.

Daddy007 said:

We were married the past 7 years , but i never informed revenue as i didn't realise it matters.

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That's a pity, because Joint Assessment - and so the Home Carer Credit - cannot be backdated to a previous year.
You can claim it for this year onwards.

Sophrosyne said:

That's a pity, because Joint Assessment - and so the Home Carer Credit - cannot be backdated to a previous year.
You can claim it for this year onwards.

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I don't think this is correct. When revenue update the OP to being married on their records, joint assessment will apply by default.

Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 s 1018(1) provides for the election for Joint Assessment.

Once an election is made – or applied automatically by Revenue - it will apply for that and subsequent years unless a different method of assessment is selected.

The section does not contain any provision for backdating joint assessment to a previous year.

Since the OP did not advise Revenue of his marriage for the past seven years, then he could not have made an election for joint assessment or had it applied automatically during any of those years.

“1018.—(1) A husband and his wife, where the wife is living with the husband, may at any time during a year of assessment, by notice in writing given to the inspector, jointly elect to be assessed to income tax for that year of assessment in accordance with section 1017 and, where such election is made, the income of the husband and the income of the wife shall be assessed to tax for that year in accordance with that section.”

Going back to 2013, I had an employment severance lump sum.
This was before the scrapping of top slicing relief.

It was allowable to backdate the last 3 tax years to choose either single or joint assessment. The most favourable calculation was then allowed.

This implies that Revenue will allow a person to backdate and switch between single and joint assessment if either system would be more beneficial to the tax payer.

S class said:

It was allowable to backdate the last 3 tax years to choose either single or joint assessmen. The most favourable calculation was then allowed.

This implies that Revenue will allow a person to backdate and switch between single and joint assessment if either system would be more beneficial to the tax payer.

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But could the OP rely on that?

It is possible that a Revenue official did not apply the provisions in your case, but it doesn't follow that every official would.

.

Who knows.

When I applied for top slicing relief it was originally based on joint assessment. I phoned revenue to get it changed to single assessment and the official told me that it could not be changed, I disputed this and he sought a second opinion. He came back and said it could not be changed. I again disputed this and quoted from revenue guidelines that in all cases the most beneficial system would apply. He then sought a third option and after a long period came back and said that I was correct and that he had learned something new that day.

That’s not the same thing at all and it is out of context.

There was an unintended anomaly with Top Slicing Relief, in the case of married couples, in that there could be different outcomes depending on whether it was calculated by reference to Joint, Separate or Single Assessment and to avoid discrimination, the most favourable method was applied.

The benefit of applying all 3 options in TSR calculations was available to you only because you were already jointly assessed for the calculation years.

Had you not advised Revenue that you were married then, for TRS purposes, you would have been assessed as a single person without reference to your partner’s income.

The option for joint or separate assessment is open only in the circumstances mentioned in my post #8.

Thanks for clarifying @Sophrosyne.

This top slicing episode was the only time I had direct dealings with Revenue. I had to explain the rules to them.
The first TSR joint calculation was done wrong and was in my favour to a reasonable amount.
However it was about 15k less than the optimum single calculation. When Revenue then calculated the single assessment they again miscalculated and were leaving me short by about 2k.

I disputed this and they did a second single assessment and this was still short by a few hundred euro.

I finally printed out my last 3 years tax returns and did my own TSR calculation. I sent these to Revenue suggesting that this was correct. They accepted my calculations.

Revenue officials were incapable of doing a simple addition of 3 years total earnings and 3 years tax totals and working out the correct average tax percentage.

They also did not know the rules of how TSR should apply to a married person.

They also sent hand addressed replies on two occasions both of which had errors in my address. I was impressed with an Post. They managed to figure out the correct address on both occasions.

The official on the phone was well mannered and thanked me for enlightening him.

I have all this correspondence and if Revenue ever pull me up for making a mistake I will throw this back at them.

Revenue could do with having some people of your expertise.

Thank you @ S class.

I don’t claim any particular expertise in Revenue administration, but the law is the law including tax law, welfare law, etc.

Civil servants don’t create law, but rather administer the law.

You will get good and bad. The same obtains in the private sector.

I congratulate you for your persistence.

Many-a-time I have had to do the same with both sectors.

Hi All thanks for your response, based on what you have said . There is nothing I can recieve from previous years. The only thing I can do now is get revenue to update our status to married and apply the joint tax band for this tax year before March 31st . I should ask for the carers tax credit for this year for my wife and thats really it . For previous years I'm wasting my time doing anything it's too late.

Daddy007 said:

For previous years I'm wasting my time doing anything it's too late.

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You may as well ask. The worst they can say is "no".

Interesting post. I did my returns yesterday for 2024. I was getting Carer's Benefit as I was looking after my mother at home. Am I entitled to claim for being a carer of an old person or is it just stay at home parents who can apply?

The qualification criteria for Carer's Benefit are outlined here:
But are you actually referring to Carer's Benefit or the Home Carer Tax Credit?