Tens of thousands of people may not be claiming a €1,000 tax credit for couples where one spouse is employed and the other is a carer, according to Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Finance Michael McGrath.
Deputy McGrath commented, “A Home Carer Tax Credit may be claimed by a married couple where one spouse cares for a dependent person such as child, elderly person or a person with a disability. This important tax credit was recently increased to €1,000 in Budget 2016.
“While the Revenue does make efforts to automatically give this tax credit to some taxpayers, only 81,000 taxpayers benefited from it in 2015. I suspect that tens of thousands of people are not claiming this tax credit as the government does very little to make people aware of it. The tax credit puts €1,000 back into the pocket of a couple where one person works and the other is a carer, including caring for children.
“The government should do far more to promote this tax credit so that everyone who is entitled to it knows how to claim it. In particular, Revenue should be obliged to explicitly bring this €1,000 credit to the attention of each taxpayer who may be entitled to benefit from it. Taxpayers who could benefit from this tax credit can claim it using Revenue’s online PAYE Anytime service, a claim form or their annual tax return.”
