‘Unemployment Repayment Option’ for a career break

J

johndoe08724

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Hello,

I am taking a career break for 1 year to go travelling. I have been in continuous employment for over 3 years.

Would I be entitled to reclaim the ‘Unemployment Repayment’ tax back option upon beginning my career break?
 
johndoe08724 said:
Would I be entitled to reclaim the ‘Unemployment Repayment’ tax back option upon beginning my career break?
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Quite likely if your pro rata monthly/fortnightly/weekly tax credits for the rest of the year would otherwise be going unused. See here:

How to claim a tax and USC refund if you are unemployed

This page outlines how to claim a tax and Universal Social Charge (USC) refund if you are unemployed
www.revenue.ie www.revenue.ie
johndoe08724 said:
I have been in continuous employment for over 3 years.
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You may be entitled to a refund of some or all of the tax paid for this year. Previous tax years are irrelevant.
 
johndoe08724 said:
If I take the career break from December 20th , with the intention of leaving for travelling in January, the 4 week wait to apply for it would fall in January 2026. Would the refund apply for tax paid in 2025?
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In that case you'll only have c. one week of unused tax credits at the end of 2025 (December 20th to 31st) so the tax refund is likely to be a marginal. Just in case you're confused, such a claim doesn't automatically give you back all of the tax paid so far during a year. It just refunds an amount based on the tax credits that have not yet been used when you cease working. Revenue apply those to your income earned so far that year, rebalance your tax record, and refund you any tax overpaid when the full year's credits are set against the partial year's earnings.

Edit: further exposition...

Your tax credits are apportioned at the start of the year on a pro rata weekly/fortnightly/monthly in the expectation that you'll be working for the full year and receiving a weekly/fortnightly/monthly wage. If you stop working/earning during the year then some of your tax credits will remain unused. These unused tax credits can then be offset against tax already paid so that you may be due a tax refund. If you stop working early in the year then you'll have most of your tax credits but maybe have earned little so the tax refund will probably be small. If you stop working late in the year you'll have only a small amount of tax credits unused so again the tax refund will likely be small. If you stop working mid year then you would probably be due a larger tax refund because you've paid, say, 6 months of tax and still have 6 months of tax credits left to be used.
 
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