Do Revenue automatically adjust income tax so that the higher earner takes the greatest burden under joint assessment?

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Feria50

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Hopefully not a stupid question but does Revenue automatically adjust income tax so that the higher earner takes the greatest burden under joint assessment?

My wife and I both recently started new jobs and things seem a little out of kilter.

My gross is €85k whereas it's going to be circa €22k for my wife.

What is the best way to adjust so that my wife pays little or no tax. If this is possible?

Thanks in advance
 
Feria50 said:
Hopefully not a stupid question but does Revenue automatically adjust income tax so that the higher earner takes the greatest burden under joint assessment?

My wife and I both recently started new jobs and things seem a little out of kilter.

My gross is €85k whereas it's going to be circa €22k for my wife.

What is the best way to adjust so that my wife pays little or no tax. If this is possible?

Thanks in advance
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Probably the best way is to ask them by email through "myAccount".

On €22K, your wife would be liable for €4,400 tax @ 20% in a full year. So, assuming that your combined tax credits for this year are at least €6,800 (4 X €1,700) then you could specify that you want to allocate €4,400 of the credits to her and retain the balance for yourself.

Revenue may reply to warn you that you'll be hit with a big bit of tax on your next salary payment - so tell them that you're happy with that!
 
Thanks

Is the first €36k not tax free for a couple, Could €22k of this be allocated to her?

She has also been on either maternity benefit (state payment only) or parents benefit leave for most of 2022, which perhaps will make things messy until a balancing statement at year end
 
Feria50 said:
Is the first €36k not tax free for a couple, Could €22k of this be allocated to her?
Click to expand...

Not exactly! You are liable for PAYE on every cent that you earn, however your combined annual tax credits are the equivalent of €36,000 tax-free!
So what you have to do is allocate enough tax credits to her to cancel out her PAYE liability for this year. However, looking at her income for this year, she would have received 26 weeks X €250 maternity benefit = €6,500 and will earn roughly €1,833 a month for the rest of this year, so her total taxable income for 2022 is unlikely to be much more than €16,000* - and this amount of income would be fully covered by her personal tax credits, so she wouldn't be hit for any PAYE.

So, unless Revenue has allocated you some of her tax credits, she shouldn't be liable for any PAYE this year!

* depending on when she resumed working
 
Groucho said:
Not exactly! You are liable for PAYE on every cent that you earn, however your combined annual tax credits are the equivalent of €36,000 tax-free!
So what you have to do is allocate enough tax credits to her to cancel out her PAYE liability for this year. However, looking at her income for this year, she would have received 26 weeks X €250 maternity benefit = €6,500 and will earn roughly €1,833 a month for the rest of this year, so her total taxable income for 2022 is unlikely to be much more than €16,000* - and this amount of income would be fully covered by her personal tax credits, so she wouldn't be hit for any PAYE.

So, unless Revenue has allocated you some of her tax credits, she shouldn't be liable for any PAYE this year!

* depending on when she resumed working
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Super thanks.

She paid 40% on her first payslip! I think it might be also to do with the fact that her previous employment is still showing as open when it should have ceased.

Anyway i sent a query via my enquiries as suggested.
 
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