Joint or separate assessment income tax

[Natb2017]

Hi we got married Nov 2014 and have been taxed as singles up till now. We were told by almost everyone joint assessment would be more beneficial and that u can't actually loose being joint assessed?
A few weeks ago I put in a request to be joint assessed received notice of assessment today for 2016 and now we actually owe 1075.59 I'm completely confused how this is correct? My gross pay was 19022.41 and husbands was 32268. It also says no appeal can be made against this assessment but surely if we are worse off can we not go back to way we were??

 

[wonko]

My guess is the joint assessment is a red herring. You can't lose out through joint assessment, in fact based on your income levels it would ensure cut off are correctly allocated.

There is no way of knowing from these details but my guess is you simply underpaid tax somehow regardless of your assessment status, in most cases due to errors on the tax credit certificate.

You are entitled to appeal within 30 days. Best bet is to ring the number on the top and ask them to explain why the liability arose

 

[T McGibney]

You are entitled to appeal within 30 days.

Appeals are a red herring too - they relate really to assessments made by Revenue in the absence of tax returns or where there is dispute over the amount or nature of income earned.

If you suspect you overpaid tax or have been over-levied tax on an assessment for a given year, you have four years from the end of that year to claim a refund of the overpayment sum.

 

[DB74]

Check that you have been allocated all relevant tax credits on the assessment, mainly

Married tax credit = €3,300
PAYE tax credit = €1,650 each (assuming you are not self-employed or a proprietary director)

 

[Monbretia]

It may have nothing to do with the joint assessment and could have arisen in either of your own individual tax/credits situation and now that it has been amalgamated the error could have come to light.

Ask for explanation of where the shortfall has arisen.

 

[RedOnion]

Also, check the amount of tax paid on P21 back to your P60's. If you or your employer manually entered your pay and tax there might be a typo.