If you are one of the 706,000 individuals who are due a refund, as announced from the Revenue last week about your taxes, you probably went out and bought yourself a nice glass of wine. But if you’re in the other boat with the 633,000 other people who received the bad news, you’re probably hoping for a miracle to wipe away the tax liability that you now owe.
And to everyone who has been affected by the wage subsidies that the pandemic brought about, there are still ways you can look to in order to lessen the bill just a little. And as a reminder, if you have not claimed either of the two below since 2017, you can still be eligible for the past four years.
1: Flat Rate Expenses
This would be a huge win if you’re eligible and you have yet to claim it this year or in the last four years. These expenses were brought about into the market many years ago in order to be able to cover the many expenses that employees will incur in their day-to-day jobs. For example, teachers are able to claim up to €518 in annual relief. Hospital consultants are eligible to claim relief of up to €695 yearly, and professional musicians can claim up to a staggering €2,476!
These relief programs were revised 2018 and signed to be stopped by January 2020, but with the sudden pandemic and economic fatigue, this came back to be reviewed and the changes were deferred to have the implementation of the end of these relief programs to be changed to January 2022. That means if you are eligible you can claim your annual relief for up to the last four years, and ongoing you can continue to claim them next year (2021) in two years (2022). These changes are estimated to affect nearly 85,000 individuals.
2: Medical Expenses
If this isn’t already obviously the first factor you would look at, just to be sure you know. You are eligible to claim 20 cents on medical expenses, once any refunds you have received are deducted. You can claim back expenses on behalf of anyone you paid for, including family and friends. These also include visits to the doctor, consultant, maternity services, and physiological help.
Lucas Zhang was a Finance major at Ohio State University. He writes about finance, mortgages, and technology for Irish Mortgage Brokers.
