Medical Expenses and Marriage

[lasertek]

Hi Folks

I am getting married in late September this year. If I am submitting medical expenses for myself and my husband at the end of the year do I submit jointly for the year or seperately. Also does it matter when the medical expenses were incurred? If our joint income at the end of the year is taxed at 40% can I claim 40% back on the med 1 form? We will be taxed jointly when married!!

Thanks

 

[ClubMan]

If our joint income at the end of the year is taxed at 40%

Don't you mean 42%?

Normally in the year of marriage you notify Revenue of your marriage but remain on single assessment for the remainder of that year and can claim back overpayment of taxes relating to your now married state at the end of the year. I'm not sure if the married taxation approach is applied to the whole year of marriage or just on a pro-rata basis (e.g. married in March = 10/12ths of the year on married taxation)?

After the year of marriage you choose the married taxation treatment most suitable to your needs. In general joint/aggregated taxation is the most beneficial to couples. See [broken link removed].

Probably the best thing to do is to file a joint claim and include a note about your personal married circumstances and let Revenue make the call on how to treat the claim. Also don't forget to inform them about your marriage separately as outlined in the FAQ.

 

[lasertek]

Hey
Thanks for that!! We will be taxed jointly. But say for example we were submitting a med 0ne form would you adhere to the 250 limit for a family or submit it as an individual and adhere to the 125 limit. The former would be more beneficial for us as this would ensure that the refund on both of our medical expenses would be at the higher rate of 42%. Otherwise as we are both on different tax bands some of the refund would be at lower tax band and some at the higher.

 

[Pia Bang]

Clubman, you are correct, the couple will remain on single assessment for the remainder of the year, then they will be reassessed and given any refund for 3/12 of the year in which they were married. This will be returned to each spouse in the % of the overpayment they have made i.e. if the husband is on higher tax he will get a higher repayment at year end.

Regarding the medical expenses, there is a higher cut off for a family claim, however it would normally be more beneficial to put in one claim than two seperate claims.