when will co-habiting couples be allowed to share tax credits?

[KatieC]

can anyone give an indication of when the income tax dept will be implementing the new civil partnership bill for couples who are already living together for more than five years?

also any thoughts on what the procedure of sharing tax credits might entail.

 

[Graham_07]

Can't help on the timescale but as regards the procedure, I imagine something similar to that applied to married couples taxed either jointly or under separate assessment. Under either of these the treatment taxed singly cannot be less favourable than that if taxed jointly. Presumably the higher earner would be able to take any unused tax credits / standard rate cut off point ( to the limits presently applied to married persons ). There will probably a form , similar to the IT2 assessable spouse election form to put the details on record with Revenue. I imagine Revenue will issue guidance as soon as they know.