Recently married - what is best tax route to go down?

[cully]

Hi,

Married in feb of this yaer and only getting round to informing revenue.

Any advice of which option to take when informing revenue:
1) Joint Assesment
2) Seperate assesment
3) Seperate treatment

I have read through the posts and read the revenue leaflet and believe that given our position, seperate assesment is the best option although it gives us no financial gains at the moment:

We both work for private companies; I earn €65k basic and she earns 52k basic. Seeing as we are both paying tax at 41% and there will be no transfer of unused allowances at 20% is seperate assesment the best option to take? Am i correct in saying that if at some stage in the future we had kids and herself left work/cut back on hours, I would then be able to use some of her allowance at 20% if her income fell to a level under the current threshold?

Any advice welcome

Thanks

Cully

 

[ClubMan]

For the year of marriage you remain separately assessed and can then request a P21 balancing statement at the end of the tax year to sort out any refund of tax that may be due on foot of your change in status. Thereafter joint (aggregated) assessment is probably the best idea. For some (e.g. one or both spouses on 20%) it may be more beneficial. For others (e.g. both on 41%) it will make no difference. If there is any tax benefit from being married then you will get it under joint aggregated taxation. Unless there are other tax issues (e.g. significant non PAYE income streams etc.) that may mean some other option might be better - in which case you probably need professional advice.

[broken link removed]