FYI - Health & Remote Working Expenses require an uploaded receipt from 2021 onwards

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Just a note as I spotted on myAccount that it is mandatory to upload receipts to claim health expenses from 2021. No doubt some of you are already doing this, but for anyone who isn't, I'd recommend starting well in advance of filing your 2021 return. Revenue's system timed out on me 3 times when entering 6 receipts tonight, I wouldn't fancy having to do that exercise at the last minute.

Edit: updated the title to reflect that this applies to remote working expenses also from 2021.
 
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Are you sure?

From Revenue.ie

Receipts needed in order to make a claim for health expenses
You are required to keep all original receipts for six years when making a claim for health expenses. You do not need to submit these receipts (this includes Med 2 forms) when you make a claim. However, we may request to view them if your claim is selected for checking.

The Revenue Receipts Tracker service in myAccount is the quickest and easiest option to store your receipts. For more information, please see Manage your receipts with the receipts tracker.
 
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Post updated 9th November. Subsequent posts may not reflect this update

Clarification from Revenue

Thank you for your email.



Taxpayers can make a claim for health expenses in one of two ways:



  1. By filing an income tax return: in this instance the claim is made after the end of the relevant tax year. There is a requirement to retain back up documentation for claims made for 6 years in the event of any follow-up queries. Alternatively, where a taxpayer has uploaded supporting documentation via the Revenue Receipts Tracker, and has opted to save the information to Revenue storage, such information is prefilled to his or her tax return to assist in the completion and filing of the return. Receipts saved to Revenue storage do not need to be retained for 6 years.
  2. By making a claim ‘in -year’: earlier this year Revenue launched a facility to claim tax credits in ‘real-time’ i.e. at the time you incur the expense. Such claims can be made via myAccount and the facility is currently available in respect of health expenses and nursing home expenses. To make a claim for either of these credits in ‘real-time’ the taxpayer is required to upload a readable image of his or her receipt(s) to the Receipts Tracker. Receipts are required in this instance as the amount claimed increases the taxpayer’s current year tax credits for which he or she will see a benefit in his or her next payroll payment from his or her employer. Further information on ‘real time’ credits can be found here.


Revenue expects to expand the number of tax credits that can be claimed in ‘real-time’ in 2022, including remote working relief.
 
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That's very disheartening on the remote working front. Not looking forward to uploading 6+ electric bills, 12 broadband bills and a couple of oil receipts... Oh yes, this is so much easier than before, just like they said in the budget :(
Last year was actually reasonably painless once you totted up how much you had spent and how many days you worked, I thought.
 
That’s beyond cynical.

By doing that, they’re ensuring a significant number of people won’t claim what they’re entitled to.

Culturally, Revenue really are deplorable. Their job is to collect the correct amount of tax, but in their view it’s to collect as much tax as possible.
 
I was able to upload .jpg files ok most of the time, but with PDFs it's like 50-50 whether it works. I might try screenshots of the PDF and see if it's more stable.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Good thinking Batman

Scan in all the receipts into a PDF and just upload one PDF

Brendan
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I'd recommend testing this, as there's a 2MB upload file size limit.

As an aside, forgetting about the hassle factor for a moment, am I the only one who thinks the wisdom of having all these personal health records sitting on Revenue's servers is perhaps not the wisest move, would seem to be a potential liability for them as much as it is for the individual...
 
losttheplot said:
Maybe screen shots of all receipts in a single document. Would the account summary page from the supplier website work? This would show all the payments made on the account.
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Thought about that, but then what date to put in as payment made?
 
As an aside, I had to use a physio for a long while over the years. Rather than get a receipt each time I would email him at well into the new year and ask him for a single receipt which he did. It listed each date and amount paid for the full calender year. I asked my doctor (well his secretary) for something similar but gave up on the third Homer blink.
 
elcato said:
As an aside, I had to use a physio for a long while over the years. Rather than get a receipt each time I would email him at well into the new year and ask him for a single receipt which he did. It listed each date and amount paid for the full calender year. I asked my doctor (well his secretary) for something similar but gave up on the third Homer blink.
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Laya provide something like this per year for any claims, it lists each claim, category (e.g. GP, Physio, Other therapy), the date of the receipt and amount refunded. I thought about using this. Maybe it wouldn't matter if you just picked one date and uploaded that with the total amount & total amount refunded for eligible categories.
 
nephster said:
That's very disheartening on the remote working front. Not looking forward to uploading 6+ electric bills, 12 broadband bills and a couple of oil receipts... Oh yes, this is so much easier than before, just like they said in the budget :(
Last year was actually reasonably painless once you totted up how much you had spent and how many days you worked, I thought.
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Tip to make this less of a pain, merge the bills into a single multi-page PDF and then just upload this once to Revenue. Google "merge pdf", there's lots of free websites that'll do it quickly and easily.
 
Update from Revenue:

Taxpayers can make a claim for health expenses in one of two ways:


Thank you for your email.
  1. By filing an income tax return: in this instance the claim is made after the end of the relevant tax year. There is a requirement to retain back up documentation for claims made for 6 years in the event of any follow-up queries. Alternatively, where a taxpayer has uploaded supporting documentation via the Revenue Receipts Tracker, and has opted to save the information to Revenue storage, such information is prefilled to his or her tax return to assist in the completion and filing of the return. Receipts saved to Revenue storage do not need to be retained for 6 years.
  2. By making a claim ‘in -year’: earlier this year Revenue launched a facility to claim tax credits in ‘real-time’ i.e. at the time you incur the expense. Such claims can be made via myAccount and the facility is currently available in respect of health expenses and nursing home expenses. To make a claim for either of these credits in ‘real-time’ the taxpayer is required to upload a readable image of his or her receipt(s) to the Receipts Tracker. Receipts are required in this instance as the amount claimed increases the taxpayer’s current year tax credits for which he or she will see a benefit in his or her next payroll payment from his or her employer. Further information on ‘real time’ credits can be found here.


Revenue expects to expand the number of tax credits that can be claimed in ‘real-time’ in 2022, including remote working relief.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Update from Revenue:

Taxpayers can make a claim for health expenses in one of two ways:


Thank you for your email.
  1. By filing an income tax return: in this instance the claim is made after the end of the relevant tax year. There is a requirement to retain back up documentation for claims made for 6 years in the event of any follow-up queries. Alternatively, where a taxpayer has uploaded supporting documentation via the Revenue Receipts Tracker, and has opted to save the information to Revenue storage, such information is prefilled to his or her tax return to assist in the completion and filing of the return. Receipts saved to Revenue storage do not need to be retained for 6 years.
  2. By making a claim ‘in -year’: earlier this year Revenue launched a facility to claim tax credits in ‘real-time’ i.e. at the time you incur the expense. Such claims can be made via myAccount and the facility is currently available in respect of health expenses and nursing home expenses. To make a claim for either of these credits in ‘real-time’ the taxpayer is required to upload a readable image of his or her receipt(s) to the Receipts Tracker. Receipts are required in this instance as the amount claimed increases the taxpayer’s current year tax credits for which he or she will see a benefit in his or her next payroll payment from his or her employer. Further information on ‘real time’ credits can be found here.


Revenue expects to expand the number of tax credits that can be claimed in ‘real-time’ in 2022, including remote working relief.
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Good to get clarity, you still have ask the question though why Revenue are taking a different approach? If the relief is granted real time, or on a deferred basis, it shouldn't change the requirement to upload a receipt.

As an aside, based on the information TheBig40 posted above, it would appear that Remote Relief expenses are included in the real-time approach too, although they aren't listed in the response Brendan received.
 
mojoask said:
Good to get clarity, you still have ask the question though why Revenue are taking a different approach? If the relief is granted real time, or on a deferred basis, it shouldn't change the requirement to upload a receipt.
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Might it be that when you file an end of year return - be it hard copy or online - you sign something legally acknowledging that it is a true statement of your income and tax situation, whereas if you apply for the real time credit I don't think that you give the same legal commitment?
 
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