What Tax You Can Claim Back And How

The average Irish person could have up to €800 in unclaimed tax, according to taxback.com. That’s quite a bit of money; a holiday, a new outfit, a new tv & a gym membership for a year. So why is this? For the most part people simply don’t know what they are entitled to, or how to go about claiming your tax back. (better in you pockets than the Government!)

I put together this simple guide to make it easy for you. I’m not an expert, this is just a guide. (for further information go to www.revenue.ie). I hope it helps and you buy something nice with the money you get back!

Before I begin, just a few things to note:

1. The forms you require are listed under each item below and the link to all the forms is at the bottom of the page

2. You can claim back your tax for the last 4 years (so if you haven’t been as savvy as you should have been these last few years, it’s not too late )

What you can claim back

1. Medical Expenses – you can claim medical expenses on anything that you have not been reimbursed for by your health insurer

Form Med 1 **
2. Dental expenses- you can claim back tax relief on all non standard dental procedures

Form Med 2 **
3. If you work on a bonus or commission structure you may have overpaid tax (again you can date it back for the last 4 years)

Form 12 **
4. Rent relief- if you’re a tenant you can claim back tax on your rent. You will need your landlord’s PPS number. Your landlords should give you this number, if not (dodge?) you may be able to negotiate a rent reduction in lieu of the payment you would have received. (again I’m NOT an expert!)

From Rent 1 **
5. Mortgage Interest Relief - Mortgage interest relief is provided at source by your lender. Your mortgage will be reduced by the amount of your tax credit.
Submit your details online http://bit.ly/9MCN7k , it will register on their system overnight and your lender will be advised straight away.

Note: you can’t back claim on-line you have to fill out a at TRSIP form http://bit.ly/9uQijU

6. Tuition Fees
Tuition fees paid for certain full-time and part-time undergraduate courses of at least 2 years duration (see link below for a list of accepted course). The relief applies to fees up to €5,000. The relief applies to fees ranging from €315 to €1,270.
You don’t fill out a form, but you are required to have certain documentation like a copy of your P60, receipts from your college etc and you send them to your local authority, not directly to Revenue- for all the requirements and where to send it: http://bit.ly/bfsMyT

7. Service Charges (ie tax relief on your bin charges, also includes water charges and sewage)

This is a bit confusing but it looks like you get a refund of 20% of all the charges for claims under €400 and it’s given as a tax credit in the following year. (Note: from 1 January 2012 tax relief will no longer be available for service charges paid.)

Form IT27 – http://bit.ly/aVX0YF

Forms

** For all the forms mentioned above go to- http://bit.ly/hbWxS

Making it even easier for you:

If you register for PAYE anytime http://bit.ly/9uEjSt , you will receive a pin number in the post and then you can avail of the following services (some are even available through texting on your mobile phone)

• View your tax record
• Claim a wide range of tax credits: service charges, union subscriptions and Rent Credit etc.
• Apply for refunds of tax including health expenses
• Update your address
• Declare additional income
• Request a review of tax liability for previous years
• Re-allocate credits between yourself and your spouse
• Track your correspondence submitted to Revenue

There are lots of other items you can claim tax back on; like carer’s allowance, artist’s allowance etc etc, for a full list go to www.revenue.ie