Tax Return Tips

[sadsun]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone here has any good suggestions for filing the personal tax return for last year?
What are some credits that the average bear should be availing of but might not be?

My two are;
1) You can claim 20% back on most medical expenses.

2) if you work from home, you are entitled to claim 30% of the costs of your electricity, heating and internet bills for the days you work from home. This is calculated by summing your total bills for the year (call this X) Multiply this by the number of days you worked from home (Y), divide that by the number of days for last year (365) and then get 30% of that by multiplying by 0.3
So that's ((XY)/365)0.3

 

[sycarton]

@sadsun The rent one is a big one lot of people aren’t really aware of it. Also if your company pays medical insurance you are entitled to claim it back.

 

[blessingposter23]

@sycarton Could you elaborate on the health insurance point please?

 

[pugnodei]

@blessingposter23 If your company pays your medical insurance and you're paying BIK then you dont get tax relief at source and need to apply for your credits. Depends on how many people are on the policy.
You can also claim 20% for money spent which was not covered by your insurance.

You can always contact revenue by phone. I've always found them really helpful.

 

[boaz308]

@pugnodei How does it work if there are multiple people (spouses/children) etc on the policy? Can you still claim for the full amount that the company is paying?

 

[pugnodei]

@boaz308 Now I could be wrong cos it's been a while since I applied them but I think it works out as 200 for an adult and 100 for a child. You'll need to submit the total cost of the policy as well.

 

[lynj]

@blessingposter23 Link below explains.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/personal-...and-age/medical-insurance-premiums/index.aspx

 

[mslady63]

@lynj This comes up every once in a while and my understanding was that depending on how the employer declares it you may or may not need to do the above.
Is that the case or would you always be able to do this? Is there a way to know ?

 

[christian142]

@mslady63 You should see the discount of 20% of the policy cost (up to a max of €200) on your policy document. Its given at source by the insurance company, and if someone pays for their own policy privately they get the relief and dont need to do anything more

If your employer paid for your insurance, they got the discount at source. However, they are actually obliged to pay this back to Revenue when filing their own tax return and you are then allowed to claim the relief

 

[mslady63]

@christian142 So there's no nuance, if the employer is paying I can for sure claim it ?

 

[christian142]

@mslady63 Yes

 

[mslady63]

@christian142 Cool, too late for the other years but I can do 2023, thanks!

 

[christian142]

@mslady63 You can still amend your 2020-2022 returns. The current rule is that you can submit or amend the previous 4 years returns, ie 2020-2023, so 2019 would have dropped out as 2023 ended

 

[mslady63]

@christian142 Yeah but I already submitted the previous years, so the button is gone

 

[deyuian]

@sadsun There's a section buried somewhere depending on your profession you can claim relief back for expenses incurred by your profession. Such as doctors and nurses having to buy scrubs and specialist clothing. Some allow 300 to 400. My profession allows for buying pencils so I get like 15 quid. I'm ball parking here but genuinely worth looking at. Oh by the way if your a member of the RTE orchestra your quids in...https://www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/employee-expenses/flat-rate-expense-allowances/index.aspx