Tax refund for unused credits?

[Vsully]

I wonder if anyone would know please. I am jointly assessed with husband. Stopped working 2 years ago to raise young family. Husband is taxed at higher rate. Not claiming homecarers allowance. Could I be due a revenue refund for unused credits that husband can't use?

 

[Marsupial]

If you aren't working then presumably you haven't paid any income tax so you can't claim a refund of something that you didn't pay!

Has your husband availed of your personal tax credit? If not, then he should.

Why aren't you claiming the home carer's tax credit?

 

[deadlyduck]

As a single income family with a home-carer, your spouse should have annual cut-off of €44300 and annual tax credits of €6550 [€3300 (married credit)+€1650 (either the employee credit or the earned income credit) +€1600 (home carer credit)] during 2021.

You can also review tax for 2020 and 2019 if your circumstances were the same in case the home carer's credit wasn't being claimed. Don't forget also to claim for qualifying medical expenses.

Home carer credit rules: https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-...s/health-and-age/home-carer-credit/index.aspx
Medical expenses rules: https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-...ons/health-and-age/health-expenses/index.aspx

 

[Vsully]

Thank you so much. I thought the home carer credit was means tested so thought we couldn't get it.

 

[Vsully]

If you aren't working then presumably you haven't paid any income tax so you can't claim a refund of something that you didn't pay!

Has your husband availed of your personal tax credit? If not, then he should.

Why aren't you claiming the home carer's tax credit?

Thanks. Yes he has my personal tax credit. I thought home carer was only if husband earned under a certain limit so never applied for that one. Will definitely do this now going back to 2019. I worked up to March 2019 so thought there might be some sort of tax refund for first 3 months tax paid. Thanks for your help

 

[RedOnion]

I worked up to March 2019 so thought there might be some sort of tax refund for first 3 months tax paid.

Yes, there might be. You just need to log on to myaccount on Revenue.ie and request a balancing statement. If you claimed any medical expenses you should have already got the refund though. It'd be unusual not to have something to claim when you've a young family.

You can claim the additional credit that way for each year (you'll need to do each year, including 2021, but it will automatically carry over for future years). There's a cutoff where the homecarers credit doesn't make sense if you also had income in the year, but if you claim it they will calculate which treatment is more beneficial to you for 2019.

Make sure to review you tax for 2017 / 18 also while you still can. Especially if you received maternity benefits in those years.

 

[Vsully]

Great, thank you so much. Would be great to get something after working all my life.