Relocation/joining bonus and jobseekers benefit

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Hi, I have some questions regarding returning to work after a period on jobseekers benefit.

The first is related to the thread title. I am claiming jobseekers benefit and the company I will be joining have agreed to pay me a Relocation/joining bonus before christmas I will not be starting with the company or have a contract in place until the new year. Can I continue to claim jobseekers benefit or does the bonus count as having started work etc?

The other questions is in relation to tax credits, I only worked for 6 months of 2018 and have been on jobseekers since. Does the jobseekers use up my tax credits or can I apply 6 months of unused tax credits to the bonus I will receive (or if the bonus wasn't happening reclaim tax from the first 6 months of the year)?

Thanks.
 
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Jobseekers benefit is taxable - you should check your tax credit and see if it is sufficient to cover the Amount of JB you were receiving. Some relocation expenses are not taxable - there is a list of the revenue website. Re claiming JB until January you should check with Social Protection as PRSI May be deducted and would show up .
 
The bonus will just be one lump sum and not allocated to any particular aspect of relocation so not sure how to get it to fall under non-taxable, I don’t really have much in the line of relocation expenses at the moment anyway so it’s more of a joining bonus really I suppose.

As far as tax credits were concerned I was planning on just handing over my p45 from the last job and they company doing the rest which I assume means they won’t have any visibility in the JB payments. Think I will still do this and see what happens to be honest.

I really didn’t believe the JB was actually taxable, though I’d have all my tax credits to use or reclaim tax paid. Ridiculous.
 
The bonus will just be one lump sum and not allocated to any particular aspect of relocation so not sure how to get it to fall under non-taxable, I don’t really have much in the line of relocation expenses at the moment anyway so it’s more of a joining bonus really I suppose.

As far as tax credits were concerned I was planning on just handing over my p45 from the last job and they company doing the rest which I assume means they won’t have any visibility in the JB payments. Think I will still do this and see what happens to be honest.

I really didn’t believe the JB was actually taxable, though I’d have all my tax credits to use or reclaim tax paid. Ridiculous.

if they make a mistake on your payroll and you under pay tax you will most likely end up paying it somewhere along the line.
 
As far as tax credits were concerned I was planning on just handing over my p45 from the last job and they company doing the rest which I assume means they won’t have any visibility in the JB payments. Think I will still do this and see what happens to be honest.
This will just put it on the long finger at best. Revenue will issue a P21 form for 2018 which will include your pay plus all JB payments. They will then work out the tax based on all money received and will adjust your 1019 credits accordingly. If you don't want them to put it off or lower your credit you should request a p21 balancing statement from them and tell them you will send a cheque if you have paid too little. Of course there is a chance that you could be owed tax as well.
A sign on bonus is taxed as normal income also.
 
if they make a mistake on your payroll and you under pay tax you will most likely end up paying it somewhere along the line.

Yeah I understand that, having been out of work a while any extra money would be welcomed now even if it had to be taken back down the line.

This will just put it on the long finger at best. Revenue will issue a P21 form for 2018 which will include your pay plus all JB payments. They will then work out the tax based on all money received and will adjust your 1019 credits accordingly. If you don't want them to put it off or lower your credit you should request a p21 balancing statement from them and tell them you will send a cheque if you have paid too little. Of course there is a chance that you could be owed tax as well.
A sign on bonus is taxed as normal income also.


I figured the singing on bouns would count as normal income for tax but would it count has having started a job, i.e. do I need to sign off JB the day before its to go into my account? This is the bigger issue really as the tax even if wrong is the companies fault and I’d just owe it back but I don’t want to land myself in trouble for claiming JB while considerd to be earning.

I know I could sign off and request my JB is paid until (think it’s done at a local level) I get paid for a month until my first salary but I’d sort of thought I could do that at the start of the year to keep me going in Jan until I get paid at the end of the month.
 
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What tax year are the company paying the bonus in? If it is 2018 I don’t think you can claim JB but if it is 2019 you may be ok. I wouldn’t recommend messing with revenue as they can charge interest . Social welfare will have notified revenue of the JB payments.


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They would be paying it to me before Christmas but I would not be starting any work until the new year and that is when my contract will be signed etc.

As far as I’m aware you will never get fines or interest from revenue when you pay the incorrect tax due to your work putting you in the wrong rate. I’ve done a lot of reading since and I sort of understand it a bit better. I would only have used a portion of my tax credits on the JB so would still have a good bit to use up either on the bonus or reclaiming tax paid on my salary earlier in the year.

I can’t see how I can easily get the right tax credit info though. The company has asked for my p45 to work out my situation but that would not be taking the JB into account and I can’t see how I can get something in the next week that I could give to the company to show what my actual credits should be. I looked on my welfare but don’t really see anything to give an update on my current state of affairs.
 
What date are you starting with the company as per your contract? It is from that date you will have to stop your JB.
 
The start date will be in January but I would be getting the relocation/joining bonus in advance of this before Christmas. So money would go into my account a few days before Christmas and I’d then pick up my JB before Christmas also if it’s allowed.

I’ve been taking to some friends who have received relocation lump sums tax free in other eu counties but I guess we have to squeeze everything for tax so can’t do this tax free here and a lot had to be vouched, from what I’ve read you can receive some unvouched money but I doubt it can be a months net salary sized sum.
 
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