Transfer of rental income to spouse

Hi, my wife is giving up work next year to become a full time mother so I will be the only earner. If she has no income then I will end up paying more tax at the higher rate as not all the tax band is transferable. However, I have rental income from a property in my own name. Is it possible to put this rental income in my wifes name on the tax return for next year and therefore she pays tax at the 20%? This should decrease our tax bill if I'm thinking this through properly. Anyone any thoughts? Thanks a lot...

Bear in mind that she won't qualify for the Home Carer's Tax Credit (worth a maximum of €770) if you can transfer this income to her and it is more than €6,620.

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In any case are you sure that rental income will be taxed in the way that you assume? I thought that is was a different class/schedule (D versus E?) of income and so was taxed differently than PAYE income earned from employment? I'm sure that others can comment more authoritatively on this.

Unfortunately you cannot transfer rental income in such a manner, you would have to alter the ownership of the property to acheive this.

Is there no way that your wife could work part-time. Perhaps even Saturdays or Sundays to avoid childminding costs. She would then be entitled to her own PAYE allowance and be able to around €8000 before paying any tax