Priority Placements

Income levies, tax credits, and public holidays

Written By David Nixon – Accounts & Payroll Administrator, Priority Placements

I moved from England and started working in Ireland for the first time last year. I started by temping for Priority Placements and I had to deal with the issue of tax credits. Now I actually work for priority placements and I have helped people apply for tax credits and more recently I have had to try and explain the income levy. Hopefully the following will be beneficial to you:

Tax Credits and emergency tax.

A common problem people tend to have when starting a new job is that they are being emergency taxed. Most people bring there P45 from there old job and expect that to stop them from being emergency taxed. However this doesn’t always prove to be the case and you end up being emergency taxed; the best way to prevent this is to apply for your tax credits from the revenue office as soon as possible. Once you start working for a new company ask your employer for their tax registration number and call the revenue office with this number and your PPS number. They should then be able to help you and should be able to send you your new tax credit certificate. Once you receive it if you drop a copy off to your new employer you should be taken off of emergency tax.

Income Levy.

Also on the 1st January 2009 the government introduced a 1% income levy. The levy is payable on gross income before any relief for any capital allowances, losses or pension contribution. This levy is payable on salaries earning up to €100,000.00 p.a. if you earn over €100,101.00 p.a. then you will have to pay a 2% levy and if you earn over €250,120 p.a. you will have to pay a 3% income levy.

However the following exemptions do apply:

· Where an individual's income for a year does not exceed €18,304 p.a.
· for over 65’s where their annual income does not exceed €20,000 p.a. for a single individual or €40,000 p.a. for a married couple
· If you hold a Full Medical card
· Social Welfare payments are also excluded from the income levy

And finally something everyone wants to know, how many public holidays are there and when are they. There are nine public holidays in Ireland and they are:

Thursday, 1st January
Tuesday, 17th March
Monday, 13th April
Monday, 4th May
Monday, 1st June
Monday, 3rd August
Monday, 26th October
Friday, 25th December
Saturday, 26th December

For more information regarding tax credits and the income levy is available at http://www.revenue.ie/en/index.html