Married/Maternity Leave/Tax Credits

L0llip0p

Registered User
Messages
92
My wife is due to go on maternity leave shortly and will be also be taking the 16 weeks unpaid leave. Her employer isnt topping up her benefit so it'll be just the basic benefit to survive on.

As of yet, she isnt 100% sure if she will return to work for a year or 2. My own income is 45k so I'm wondering if I should transfer her tax credits to me while she is not working. Are there any drawbacks/downsides to doing this? I cant think of any off hand but I'm no expert.....

Do I need to contact Revenue to transfer her credits?

On side issue, I am also self employed so I'm not sure how/if this changes anything from a ROS/tax return perspective (eg. claiming personal credit, paye credit etc). Not sure if separate or joint assessment would be the way to go....