Only 1 in 5 of the Irish population very confident to handle their tax reliefs and welfare benefits.

S

S class

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With our great education system and large proportion of students getting third level education our 18 to 34 year olds are less likely be to able to handle their tax reliefs and welfare benefits.

This situation needs to improve.


Bank of Ireland survey.

"Financial wellbeing is about having the confidence to manage your money, day to day, plan for the future and be prepared for unexpected financial shocks. At Bank of Ireland we are committed to the financial wellbeing of our customers and the wider community that we serve. We want to help you to thrive by enabling you to make better financial decisions for yourself and your loved ones. With this in mind we have grouped together some common tax benefits that you may be eligible to claim.

Estimates vary as to the value of unclaimed tax benefits across Ireland each year, most likely running to millions of Euro.

Based on Research we completed into people’s awareness and familiarity with tax reliefs and welfare benefits we found that*

  • Only 1 in 5 people continue to be very confident in conducting tasks relating to tax reliefs and welfare benefits.
  • Youths aged 18-34 and female segments are more likely to be less confident in conducting tasks relating to tax reliefs and welfare benefits.
  • Overall awareness of Government online services remained high and increased further such as Revenue Online Service (ROS), Revenue.ie – myAccount and MyGovID.
  • Tax relief claims on medical expenses remained the highest incidence of claims.
*BOI / RED C Research 2022 amongst consumers aged 18 and above in Republic of Ireland. Benchmark research conducted in 2020."
 
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That's hardly the fault of the education system.

Shortly after he became Social Welfare Minister in or around 1992, Charlie McCreevy humorously bemoaned the complexity of the social welfare system, noting that someone could go on Mastermind and answer specialised subject questions on social welfare entitlements and how they work.

30 years on, I've no idea whether or not it has since improved but our tax system has definitely gotten a lot more complicated since then. Even as a practising accountant for almost 25 years, I find aspects of it difficult to negotiate. How is an average worker in any other sector meant to ever gain an understanding of even the basic principles?

We would all benefit if it was even a little more straightforward.
 
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The social welfare system is definitely more complicated now than it was thirty years ago.

There are new layers of complexity added regarding the contributory pension.

Two calculation methods running parallel and changing every year for the next ten years and new rules for deferral.

New rules are added on the age when people cease to be liable for payment of prsi.

There will shortly be two systems for Jobseekers benefit running in parallel also. The existing system and the new pay related system.

How to calculate the best method of claiming your contributory pension would be a good specialist subject for Mastermind.

Taxation of investment funds in Ireland could also be a Mastermind specialist subject.
 
I've had to remind multiple colleagues to reclaim their health insurance relief. That's €1000 left on the table (€200 for the current and previous four tax years) for 15 minutes of effort.
 
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Corola said:
There's little effort made either by the insurer or the employer to inform employees about this relief.
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It's none of their business frankly.

The issue here is the stupidly complex procedure, which in fairness probably made sense to the top civil servants who drafted it.
 
S class said:
With our great education system and large proportion of students getting third level education our 18 to 34 year olds are less likely be to able to handle their tax reliefs and welfare benefits.
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They's no LC subject that covers this, and at JC it depends on subject choice
 
As it is something that changes a lot, teaching even the principles in school can only go so far. It's up to everyone to educate themselves. But I suspect lack of interest even when it's going to give them cash in their pockets that stops most people from learning.
 
  • Tax relief claims on medical expenses remained the highest incidence of claims.
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I suspect that this based on the simple fact that you need to keep your receipts and use them when submitting a claim.
In the main most 18/34 year old's in this country interact with a GP (or other health service) infrequently so often neglect to ask for or keep receipts.
Because of issues these days I religiously keep the receipts for claiming.
However while younger I never accumulated enough to bother claiming.

Its a great headline but missing key details.
 
Corola said:
There's little effort made either by the insurer or the employer to inform employees about this relief.
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This seems odd.

The cost of reminding staff once a year and even helping them to claim it is far lower than the benefit to the employees.
 
BlackandBlue said:
I suspect that this based on the simple fact that you need to keep your receipts and use them when submitting a claim.
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Isn't it saying the opposite?

Tax relief claims on medical expenses remained the highest incidence of claims.

So the most claimed tax reliefs are for medical expenses. I find it is easier than ever to claim since a lot of my medical receipts are emailed to me by my GP/dentist, so I don't have to keep track of printed receipts.
 
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Yes.
But its complicated somewhat.
The vast majority of taxpayers fall under the PAYE system and bar medical will have few other claimable expenses.

As I said most "young" people in the main are healthy so will not generate enough medical bills to make it worth their while claiming

For those of us who have issues it makes sense to keep receipts and claim.
So it should be expected that the main source of claims is medical.
 
BlackandBlue said:
As I said most "young" people in the main are healthy so will not generate enough medical bills to make it worth their while claiming
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Claiming a €50 GP visit gets you €10 back in tax credits. Unless you're on CEO wages it's worth ten minutes of effort.

I do mine in batches and have claimed 45 medical expenses for my family this year, the last about 5 minutes ago.
 
S class said:
There is poor uptake in claiming rent tax credits.
This would be an area impacting a lot of unconfident young people.
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No surprise there when the relevant section on the Form 11 tax return to claim this credit requires the completion of 19 entries between tick boxes and data entry.
 
Dr Strangelove said:
Claiming a €50 GP visit gets you €10 back in tax credits. Unless you're on CEO wages it's worth ten minutes of effort.

I do mine in batches and have claimed 45 medical expenses for my family this year, the last about 5 minutes ago.
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I wholeheartedly agree with claiming all possible expenses.
By your own admission you are similar to me with "large" medical expenses.
Many younger people will rarely have qualifying expenses and may not see the point in chasing a "measly" tenner.
I had to constantly remind my kids when in college to bring me the receipt because it was such an infrequent event.
 
T McGibney said:
No surprise there when the relevant section on the Form 11 tax return to claim this credit requires the completion of 19 entries between tick boxes and data entry.
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Yes, I had a quick look at the 43 page revenue document on Rent tax credits.

Even the names used for the examples are designed to be confusing. Peter, Paula, Patricia and Pauric. Unbelievable !
 
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