Claiming tax relief on Health Expenses incurred a few years back.

I have never bothered to claim tax relief on health expenses, such as visits to my GP and the odd prescription.

About two visits a year for me €110 and two visits for my wife €130.

We would have a few prescriptions costing less than €100 each year.

Looking over my old receipts these amount to about €500 over the past 4 years.

I see online that I can claim tax relief on the last 4 years expenses.

When completing my tax return for 2021, should I just enter one amount €500 on my Form 12, as if all costs happened in 2021?

There does not seem to be a space on the form where I enter each year separately.

You make a return for each relevant year.
So any medical expenses incurred in 2018 must be put in the 2018 return.
Same for 2019, 2020 and 2021
You mention €500.
Is this total amount for The last 4 years?
Or,
This is the annual amount for each year?

BlackandBlue said:

You make a return for each relevant year.
So any medical expenses incurred in 2018 must be put in the 2018 return.
Same for 2019, 2020 and 2021
You mention €500.
Is this total amount for The last 4 years?
Or,
This is the annual amount for each year?

Click to expand...

The €500 is the total amount for the last 4 years. I thought that I could claim for the last 4 years expenses under the 4 year rule? When you say that "any medical expenses incurred in 2018 must be put in 2018 return". Are you saying that I cannot claim for these in my 2021 return?


"There is a limit to how far back you can claim tax refunds under Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Self-assessment.

This limit is set to four years, meaning you can only request reviews or claim refunds from the last four years. For example, claims for 2018 must be made by 31 December 2022. Claims made after this time cannot be repaid."

Tintagel said:

The €500 is the total amount for the last 4 years. I thought that I could claim for the last 4 years expenses under the 4 year rule? When you say that "any medical expenses incurred in 2018 must be put in 2018 return". Are you saying that I cannot claim for these in my 2021 return?


"There is a limit to how far back you can claim tax refunds under Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Self-assessment.

This limit is set to four years, meaning you can only request reviews or claim refunds from the last four years. For example, claims for 2018 must be made by 31 December 2022. Claims made after this time cannot be repaid."

Click to expand...

The 4 year time limit, is the time limit taxpayers have for claiming reliefs/credits. That's all. It doesn't mean you can ignore the normal rules which apply to the credits/reliefs. In your case as it's 2022, you can still claim relief on expenses incurred in 2018 if you have haven't claimed them already. As the relief is claimed against the tax for the year you incurred the expense, you have to file a 2018 return to claim relief for your 2018 expenses. You have to match the expenses to the correct tax year. You can't lump all of your last 4 years expenses together on one return because that's not the way it works.

This is much easier if you are using the online system.
On the Revenue website, you can see, and modify, tax returns from previous years. You open the relevant one up and claim health expenses against the relevant year (and indeed, any other relevant credits) in the relevant section.
A bit complicated the first time, but it tries to walk you through it via prompts.