Tax bill after declaring marriage

bluebell11

Registered User
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Hi - i'm a bit confused as I've just got a €4k tax bill after registering as married with Revenue. In summary:

  • Married since 2015 but only registered as married the other day. No reason we didn't do it other than we both pay tax at higher rate so didnt think there was any benefit. Obviously a mistake not to have done it immediately. I did it the other day as one of us is likely to loose our job in the net few months so wanted to be able to allocate the credits this year
  • As I said we both pay taxes at the higher rate and are PAYE workers so not sure why we would owe more tax?
  • My husband had a rental income 2016-2018 but again this was payed through his tax return each year
Can anyone suggest why we might have a bill? Again we are PAYE, higher rate, only standard tax credits etc and earn about 90K combined - another 4/5k on the years there was a rental income
 
If both of you are in the higher tax bracket it doesn't make sense for you to have a tax liability just for becoming jointly assessed. Allowances for married couples in the higher tax bracket should mirror your tax liability if you weren't married.

As a starting point look at the documentation the revenue have sent you and look at what period it is in relation to. If you post the figures for the periods where the liability has come from you may find assistance in getting to the bottom of it.
 
Look to your tax bills in the two years pre-dating your marriage. In situations like yours I think Revenue may go back 7 years in assessing your individual liabilities.
 
Had you previously declared the rental income - it may be why you have a bill now. Also there is USC on rental . Being jointly assessed should not increase your tax liability.
 
It's possible that either or even both spouses were single parents (or widowed/divorced) before marriage. On marriage, they would lose the benefits of any single parent tax credits and bands.

Other than that, I can't see how a jointly assessed couple could have a higher liability than two singles. (Unless there's some other error that has only come to light on examination by the Revenue.)
 
I worked with a woman years ago who mentioned in passing that her husband had all her transferable credits so that she could see what it was really worth for her to go out to work but I was doing the payroll and pointed out that she had single credits as well as him having married credits, they hadn't been joined properly on Revenues's systems. That led to quite an underpayment!
 
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