Who’s Claiming Tax Refunds in 2011?

With all the changes in the Tax System in the last few years, you can easily lose track of what you can claim with in excess of 200 Tax Credits and Income Deductions available to regular tax payers.

But beyond the regular tax refunds we see, these are what we are seeing a lot more of this year

1.  Income Levy Refunds

Lots of Income Levy refunds being paid.  Things we look out for are: 

• If you only worked part of the year;
• If you changed job/doubled jobbed during the year;
• If you earn less than €15k over the year; 
• If you have a medical card;
• If you received bonuses/Lump sum/Paid tax on a Redundancy –

If any of the above apply to you, then there’s a good chance you overpaid Income Levy.  That’s a lot of reasons!

2.  Received Redundancy

As we mentioned above, if you received a Redundancy, then you must, must, must get your taxes checked for Income Levy Refunds.  This year, these types of income levy refunds have varied from €200 to just under €2k.

But You could also be due Health Levy Refunds (lumped into the PRSI amount on your payslip). 

If you did pay Tax on your Redundancy, then you need to check to see if you are due Top Slicing Relief.  We’ve dealt with cases where clients are due €15,000 – €20,000 in tax refunds through applying Top Slicing Relief to your Redundancy Lump sum payment

Not to mention that the change in circumstance brought about by the redundancy will greatly affect your Income Tax situation.

3.  Emigrating

When we used to go abroad for a few months or years ‘travelling’ – now it’s a bit more permanent and called emigration.

But don’t forget that if you finish work before the end of the year, you did not receive all your tax credits, so you will be due a refund of some of the tax you paid.  Don’t leave it behind you.

4.  Medical Cards

If you have a Medical Card, then you just got hammered by the latest Budget in your January payslip.  Because If you had a Medical Card, you should not have been paying the Income Levy or the Health Levy.

But we estimate than more than 30% of Medical Card holders were incorrectly paying these levy’s.  Were you? 

If you had a medical card and earned over €500 a week in 2010, then you are probably due a refund of over €1,500 if the medical card was not applied to your pay correctly.

5.  Stay at Home Mums & Dads

If you or you spouse were looking for work in 2010 and earned less than €5,000 and have kids at home, without realising it , you will probably be due a stay at home parent tax credit, called Home Carers tax credits.  This has become a more common situation in the last year.

The above are the main ‘trends’ we have found in the last few months and of course our customers are still receiving refunds for the more regular Medical Expenses, Trade Union subs, Rent relief and so on.  So get in touch today for your Free Refund Estimate by phone or email.