Most employees in Ireland pay tax through the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system, where your employer deducts tax directly from your wages for Revenue.
Every PAYE worker gets tax credits, which include reliefs you may be able to claim depending on your circumstances.
Even if you’ve left the country but have worked in Ireland within the last 4 years or you only worked part of the year, you can still claim!
There is a range of tax credits and reliefs that we will check if you are eligible to claim back, most of them you’ve probably never heard of before!
Flat-rate expenses are those that cover the cost of equipment your employee needs for work. This equipment may include tools, uniforms and stationery.Your employee must incur these costs in performing the duties of their employment, and the costs must be directly related to the nature of their employment. Flat-rate expenses are available to a wide range of professions.The amount of the deduction is agreed between Revenue and representatives of groups or classes of employees (usually trade union officials). All employees of the class or group in question can then claim the agreed deduction in their own tax credits.
Qualifying health expenses are for health care you have paid for. Examples of qualifying health expenses are payment for:
in-vitro fertilisation (IVF)
acupuncture (only where provided by a practitioner)
non-routine dental care
treatment from a psychologist or psychotherapist where either:
additional expenses of health care for a child:
additional expenses for a kidney patient
nursing home and additional nursing care expenses.
You can also claim relief on the following if you are prescribed, referred or advised to, by a practitioner:
Health expenses included for relief
Can you claim for health care received outside Ireland?
Yes. To qualify for relief, the medical practitioner must be registered under that country’s laws to practice medicine or dentistry there.
If you travel abroad to receive health care that is not available in Ireland, you can also claim relief on:
You may be the student, or you may pay the fees on the student’s behalf. However you can only claim the relief if you are the person who actually paid the fees.
The maximum amount you can claim is €7,000 per course, per person, per academic year.
Each claim is subject to a single disregard amount of €3,000 or €1,500 each tax year.
The first €3,000 is disregarded for a full-time student or €1,500 for a part-time student. If you have paid fees for more than one student, this disregard amount will only be deducted from your claim once.
Mortgage interest relief is a tax relief you can claim on the interest you pay on a qualifying mortgage loan in a given tax year.
The qualifying mortgage loan must have been taken out between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2012. This tax relief can be claimed until the end of 2020.
A qualifying mortgage loan could be:
First year of marriage or civil partnership You will continue to be taxed as two single people in the first year. You may qualify for a refund. You qualify if you pay more tax for the year, as two single people, than you would if you had been jointly assessed. If you are due a refund, it will only be given from the date of marriage or registration of civil partnership. You can claim the refund of the difference after 31 December of the year. Refunds are repaid to each person in proportion to the amount of tax each of you paid.
Years following the marriage or registration of civil partnership
There are three options for calculating tax for you and your spouse or civil partner. These options are:
You may choose the option best suited to you as a couple
You are caring for a dependent child on your own; you can claim the Single Person Child Carer Credit in addition to your personal tax credit. There is also an increase in your standard rate tax band. This means that you can earn more before you start to pay the higher rate of tax.
Unmarried, separated, divorced persons or those who are a former civil partner are eligible to claim the one parent family tax credit. The One-Parent Family Tax Credit is currently €1,650.
The One Parent Family Tax Credit is in addition to the personal tax credit. A person who is widowed, deserted, separated, or unmarried and a child, stepchild or adopted child that resides with them for all or part of the tax year is eligible to claim this additional €1,650 tax credit.
You may claim this credit if you maintain a relative at your own expense. You can claim for your relative, or a relative of your spouse or civil partner.
Conditions to qualify The relative you claim for must be:
There is no requirement for the relative to live in Ireland to qualify for this credit. However, if you are claiming for your child on whose services you depend, that child must live in Ireland with you. Relief due You can receive a tax credit of €70. You will not receive a tax credit if your dependent relative’s income exceeds €15,060. All of your dependent relative’s income is included for the income limit purposes. This includes their social welfare payments, pensions and deposit interest. If more than one person maintains the dependent relative, the credit is divided between or among them.