TRS Refund 2 Single people different refunds

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GarBow

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I wonder if anyone could tell me if i'm right in my thinking.

My girlfriend and I bought our house in sep 2006, the mortgage interest paid in 2006 was 4050eu. I claimed TRS for 2006 in 2007 and was given back 800eu (20% x 4000eu). Fine.

My girlfriend has only recently claimed hers for 2006 and has been given back 420eu. This does not make sence to me. I thought that as single people we would be entitled to the same relief. It certaily seems that the 2007 refunds were the same (Paid in the form of reduced payments so not sure).

Should our 2006 refunds have been the same?
 
Was €4,050 the total interest bill for the mortgage in 2006? If so then you have already claimed €4K @ 20% = €800 so I don't see how she is getting any more than €50 @ 20%! Maybe you can clarify the figures? Remember that there is a cap on the amount of interest that qualifies for relief.
 
The actual interest paid in 2006 was 4203.11eu

My refund was 800eu

Girlfriends was 420.31eu

If, like you say, i have already claimed the relief at 20% for the first 4000eu, therefore she can only claim 20% of the remaining 203.11eu then her refund seems wrong, especially as it's the total interest / 10.

I wonder if revenue have decided that we both should have been given 10% of the first 4000eu but have refunded her 10% of the total interest rather than 400eu and also refunded me 800eu instead of 400eu.

Seems like there has been a mistake made somewhere.
 
How is this so? Isn't TRS paid back to the account the mortgage is taken from? How are you splitting this amount to what is yours and hers?

Am interested in this as in a similar situation and the above is how it operates for us.
 
ClubMan said:
Eh? What is this divided by 10 thing?
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My point exactly. It seems too coincidental that her refund should be 10% of the total interest paid. A mistake on revenue's part is suspect.

I was wrong to think that we were both entitled to 20% of the ceiling of 4000eu. Which makes sence as a married couple would be entitled to less, i.e. 20% of a ceiling of 8000eu. (20% x 4203.11eu = 840.62).

I will contact revenue again and see how they have calculated the refund and let you know.

PM1234,

The refunds for previous years are paid directly into the providing account for your mortgage (you give details of current account on the TRSP form), if you are claiming a refund for the current year, it is paid back to the mortgage provider. It then depends on the provider as to how it is refunded to yourself.

In our case, PTSB, if i had not contacted them to refund it to our current account then they would have paid it off the principle of our mortgage. Though when my girlfriend got her refund (a few months after mine), they automatically paid it back in the form of three reduced payments, over 3 months. In seperate years i might add. Nov. and Dec. 07 and then Jan 08. Strange they didn't refund in the same year in the form of two reduced payments.

Thanks for replies.
 
PM1234 said:
How is this so? Isn't TRS paid back to the account the mortgage is taken from? How are you splitting this amount to what is yours and hers?
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I'm not, we applied for our refunds at seperate times, therfore two seperate refunds were given.
 
If the TOTAL interest paid in 2006 was €4000, and you're both claiming as single people, surely you're only entitled to claim from €2000 each (assuming a 50/50 split). Looks to me like your girlfriend was paid the correct amount and you were overpaid.
 
jnh said:
Looks to me like your girlfriend was paid the correct amount and you were overpaid.
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How was she paid the correct amount? If we had applied at the same time then we should have recieved a total of 20% of up to 2 x 4000eu.

The total interest paid was 4203.11eu

We should have received 20% of this, 840.62eu.

As i had recieved 800eu a few months earlier, her refund should have been 40.62eu as i understand it now.

If we had paid over 8000eu in 2006 then we would have received a combined 1600eu.

So yes, we have been overpaid.

Just beats me how revenue could come up with a figure which is exactly 10% of the total interest paid for her refund.

If the TOTAL interest paid in 2006 was €4000, and you're both claiming as single people, surely you're only entitled to claim from €2000 each
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No, As a single person on a joint mortgage, the ceiling height is not divided 50/50. You are both entiltled to claim for up to 20% of 4000eu interest paid.
 
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GarBow said:
My point exactly. It seems too coincidental that her refund should be 10% of the total interest paid. A mistake on revenue's part is suspect.
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Her relief was not exactly 10% of the total interest paid as you state above.
I was wrong to think that we were both entitled to 20% of the ceiling of 4000eu. Which makes sence as a married couple would be entitled to less, i.e. 20% of a ceiling of 8000eu. (20% x 4203.11eu = 840.62).
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FTB married couples and dual joint buyers were both entitled to a maximum of €8K @ 20% in 2006 (rates are higher now). But if (as in your case) they paid less than €8K then relief on the amount acutally paid would apply. In short you were jointly entitled to €4203.11 @ 20% but Revenue, for some reason, seem to have granted more than this to you combined. You need to get Revenue to explain how they arrived at the figure for relief granted. It may simpy be a mistake that needs to be rectified.
 
GarBow said:
No, As a single person on a joint mortgage, the ceiling height is not divided 50/50. You are both entiltled to claim for up to 20% of 4000eu interest paid.
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But you cannot both get relief on the same interest resulting in 40% relief on some of it!
 
ClubMan said:
But you cannot both get relief on the same interest resulting in 40% relief on some of it!
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I realise that from your first reply! but you are, or rather, were in 2006 entitled to claim on up to 4000 each. Hence my explination should the interest paid have been greater than 8000eu.

Thanks
 
ClubMan said:
Her relief was not exactly 10% of the total interest paid as you state above.
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4203.11/10 = 420.31 which is what she was refunded.

Looks like 10% to me.

I know this is not the correct refund but you can't argue that it's not 10%.
 
Both entitled as single people to claim TRS on a joint mortgage? When we applied for TRS our mortgage provided refunded to the current a/c the mortgage was being taken from which was the current a/c of one person only. Does this mean one of us is still entitled to claim TRS? Property was purchased in 2004?
 
Any refund for previous years will be made to the providing account stated on the TRSP form.

Rufunds for currrent years (TRS1 Form) are made to your mortgage provider, they then either refund to the providing account, pay directly off the mortgage priciple or pay back in the form of reduced payments. It depends on the provider.

PTSB payed mine into the providing account but payed G/F's as reduced payments.

As for wether or not one of you has not been refunded TRS it depends on wether or not you both aplied for it. Just because it was refunded to an account held by one person is irrelivant. They only refund previous years to the account stated on the TRSP form.
 
So you were just referring only to refunds due then rather than the monthly contribution. We just put down one sole a/c no. on the TRS form and the refund was paid back to that a/c as are the monthly contributions. I thought from the previous posts that both single people were entitled to to claim individually. I was starting to look forward to a nice refund :(
 
If you are both on the mortgage under first time buyer status then yes, you are both entitled to claim TRS.

The TRS for 2008 is now 20% of up to 10,000eu of the intersest paid to a maximum of 2000eu each for single persons. i.e. 20% of 20,000eu to a maximum of 4000 eu for 2 single persons combined.

Therefore if the amount of interest you pay exceeds 20,000eu in 2007 you will receive 333.33eu (4000/12) per month TRS for you as a couple.

Sorry for using 2008 figures but it seems awkward to keep refering back to 2006, which was the stage of my original query.

Basically, 2 single people on a mortgage receive the same as a married couple.

I'd be interested to know what the situation would be if three people were to buy a house together. Whether they would be entitled to 3 x 20% of 10,000eu.
 
GarBow said:
4203.11/10 = 420.31 which is what she was refunded.

Looks like 10% to me.

I know this is not the correct refund but you can't argue that it's not 10%.
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Sorry - I misread your earlier posts. My mistake.
 
PM1234 said:
So you were just referring only to refunds due then rather than the monthly contribution. We just put down one sole a/c no. on the TRS form and the refund was paid back to that a/c as are the monthly contributions. I thought from the previous posts that both single people were entitled to to claim individually. I was starting to look forward to a nice refund :(
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Joint buyers are each entitled to relief - e.g. joint FTBs this year would be entitled to claim relief on a maximum of 2 x €10K = €20K interest. Obviously they cannot both claim relief on the same interest.
 
ClubMan said:
Obviously they cannot both claim relief on the same interest.
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Am I being extremely slow here? I figured that on a joint mortgage the relief was paid back to the account the mortgage was being paid from ie whether a sole account or joint account? I figured that if two people signed the same TRS form that the monies due would be paid in total (in our case our lender refunds to the a/c the mortgage is being paid from). We have always just assumed the refund and the monthly contribution applicable are correct. Maybe a phonecall to the tax office is due?
 
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