I realise that for the previous couple of years my wife and I would have benefited from being jointly assessed rather than "separate assessment".
In 2024 my wife earned over €80K while I earned less than €30K
in 2025 my wife also earned over €80K while I had no income (including no social welfare payments)
My wife is PAYE
I was self employed, and when I was working I was setup by an accountancy firm as a director of an umbrella company - I understand that this is a common arrangement for self employed people.
Can my wife and I go to Revenue and ask to retrospectively change our assessment basis for 2024 and 2025 from "separate assessment" to "joint assessment" and recalculate our tax for both years on a joint assessment basis?
You can't change from separate assessment to joint assessment retrospectively but you don't need to. You can ask for unused credits and and ratebands to be transferred for a tax year after the year is over once you've both done your returns and you'll get whatever the difference is refunded to you.
I'm assuming that you're on separate assessment and not separate treatment.
