Tax to be paid on supporting adult family members (mature students) while they study.

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Hi All,

Just hoping that someone here can elaborate further or provide a link on the tax that Revenue would apply, if parents support their adult family members (mature students), while they study. I read this article in the Independent recently and was quite surprised to see that such tax would apply. I had a quick look at the Revenue site but can't find exact information about it.

Digouts for adult kids

Before December 2014, parents could pay for the support, maintenance or education of their children without triggering a tax bill for their child - regardless of how old that child was.

However, in December 2014, the Government tightened up the law around inheritance tax so that only children under the age of 18, or those in full-time education and not more than 25 years of age, are exempt from tax on such financial support.

"Many parents believe that it's no problem to provide for a child financially if the child is over 25 and studying," says Casey-Grehan. "Quite often, you have children leaving school at the age of 19. They may go on and do a four-year course - followed by a masters - or they may do a seven-year degree in medicine."

Such children could still be getting some financial support from their parents when they're older than 25. "Once a child over 25 gets more than €3,000 a year from each of his parents [€6,000 in total], a tax bill could be triggered for the child in the future," says Casey-Grehan.

"You could be paying their tuition fees for example. If the child is living away from home and renting somewhere, you may be paying their rent. You may be providing them with money to cover food, transport, college books and so on. You might be providing them with free use of a second home." All of these things could trigger a tax bill for an adult child.
 
Don't you mean a tax bill for the parents in reality? Inappropriate if all is legitimate re the child continuing to study, etc.

Unfortunately sometimes there are abuses of what are intended to be bona fide tax provisions, and a sledgehammer approach is then taken to deal with it.
 
Section 82 was changed to stop billionaires buying Range Rovers for their kids and claiming that such "support" was "normal" for them and "commensurate with their means".

I don't believe that Revenue would actually go after legitimate cases.

But in any event, you'd deal with it in other ways (e.g. lend the cash and then write it off over time).

It's laughable though that normal stuff potentially gets caught.
 
Section 82 was changed to stop billionaires buying Range Rovers for their kids and claiming that such "support" was "normal" for them and "commensurate with their means".

I don't believe that Revenue would actually go after legitimate cases.

But in any event, you'd deal with it in other ways (e.g. lend the cash and then write it off over time).

It's laughable though that normal stuff potentially gets caught.

But can't I do this with juniors Range Rover as well, and the yacht.
 
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