Advice needed regarding my mother's tax situation.

A

Annieindublin

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Mum has 2 pensions. Widows civil service pension and state widows pension. Civil service pension is about €45k and the widows is I think €16k, includes a living alone allowance. She was widowed in March this year.

As far as I can see the civil service pension deducts paye but the state pension doesn’t.

So there will be a tax bill. Also there’ll be a lot of med 1 claims. We’ve been handling that for her and dad. But there was no social welfare pension while dad was alive. So paye and Ned 1 was all that was involved.m

She’s almost 90. Not gonna log on and sort out her own tax.

What’s the simplest way to sort this out for her? We did set up a gov.id account for her in the past.
 
Annieindublin said:
As far as I can see the civil service pension deducts paye but the state pension doesn’t.
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Are you sure that the state pension isn't reported by DSP/SW to Revenue and Revenue have reduced her tax credits and SRCOP to account for the tax due on this pension? That's what normally happens. Maybe it just hasn't happened yet in this case if the pension only started recently?

Taxation of Department of Social Protection pensions

This page outlines how pension payments from the Department of Social Protection are taxed
www.revenue.ie www.revenue.ie
Annieindublin said:
state widows pension
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On the other hand, if you actually mean Bereaved Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension then that's not dealt with that way as per the link above.
 
I checked her civil service pension payslips. 2k personal allowances applied there. No state pension mentioned anywhere.

Dad paid an additional contribution post retirement so that mum would get the contributory widows pension.

I’ll set aside an appropriate % of her state pension and we’ll do a year end tax return.
 
Annieindublin said:
Dad paid an additional contribution post retirement so that mum would get the contributory widows pension.
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Didn't know that could be done.

My husband's state contributory pension was notified directly to Revenue.

Maybe it would be a good idea to hire an accountant for the first year to get yourselves set up on the tax situation if you feel you cannot figure out how to do it online. But it can't actually be that complicated given it's only 2 incomes and medical receipts that need to be inputted.

(and sorry for you loss)
 
Inform Revenue of the state pension. The usually reduce the tax credits being advised to the civil service pension office so that more tax is taken at source to take care of the tax due on the state pension.
 
@Bronte i didn’t know that either. But dad always said mum would be looked after when he died, he didn’t expect to live to 91 as he was diagnosed with a serious heart condition at 60… but he loved paperwork and when he died I found a letter from 1995 confirming that PRSi contributions would be deducted from his pension in order for his widow to receive the contributory widows pension. Without that letter I wouldn’t have known to even bother applying as her civil service pension is so high.
 
We can manage it I think, the absence of an email address and a smart phone just means some faffing around to get it sorted. We have set up gov ID etc now.

For those of you with not yet very senior relatives get this stuff underway while you can. I wish we had introduced the parents to smart phones and emails before it became too much for them.
 
Set up a smartphone and email for her but use and look after them for her? All the online stuff will be accessible to you then to administer these matters for her on her behalf.
 
Annieindublin said:
I checked her civil service pension payslips. 2k personal allowances applied there. No state pension mentioned anywhere.

Dad paid an additional contribution post retirement so that mum would get the contributory widows pension.

I’ll set aside an appropriate % of her state pension and we’ll do a year end tax return.
Click to expand...
Well she should have much more than that in allowances so looks like tax credits have been reduced if her payslips only show 2k annually. There should be 2k personal allowance, 2k PAYE allowance and the age credit 245. There would be no mention of the state pension on payslips, it would appear on annual tax credit certificate which I presume is not posted out anymore at start of year and just lives in the computer!
 
True there should be paye allowance.
Dad died in March and we can’t access his payslips. They were I think jointly assessed. Mum had no income in her name.

We are sorting out online access to her tax certs etc
 
Hi @Annie
So sorry for your loss


This is my understanding
(and am open to correction)

Your parents were jointly assessed.

Tax return Jan - March 26
If your father was the ‘assessible spouse’ a tax return will be done for all income received by him and your mother from the start of this year until his date of death.
He maintains all the married tax credits and bands for year 2026.

Tax return March - Dec
If your mother is therefore the ‘ non assessable surviving spouse’-
*She will need to complete a tax return of her own to account for her income only
and her income only from the date of death in March until the end of the year. ( someone can do this for her)

*She will be assessed now as a single person and
get the single tax band €44000

*She is entitled to get the paye tax credit €2000 ( she has paye income)

*She is also entitled to €2000 personal tax credit.

*In the year of bereavement an extra
€2000 personal tax credit.

Therefore the increased €4000 personal tax credit applies for 2026 Tax year only.
 
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